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ENGLISH 


READING5-FOR 


STUDENTS 


"  The  virtue 
of  books  is  the 
perfecting  of 
reason,  which  is 
indeed  the  hap- 
piness of  man." 
Richard  De 


ENGLISH 


READINGS-FOE 


STUDENTS 


Edmund   Burke 
From  the  portrait  by  George  Romncy 


BURKE'S 

SPEECH   ON  CONCILIATION 
WITH  AMERICA 


EDITED  BY 

DANIEL  V.  THOMPSON,  A.  M. 

HEAD  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  ENGLISH 
IN  THE  LAWRENCEVILLE  SCHOOL 


NEW  YORK 
HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 


80122 


COPYRIGHT,  1911, 

BY 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 
fune,   1924 


PRINTED  IN  THE  U.  S.  A. 


H 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION  PAGE 

^j         I.     Burke's  Career vii 

\j          II.    Speech  on  Conciliation  with  America          .         .  xvi 

M                  1.     Historical  Background        ....  xvi 

V                2.     A  Brief  of  the  Speech  in  Outline          .        .  xxi 

3.     Form  and  Style           .          .         .         .         .  xxvi 

,>*^  DESCRIPTIVE  BIBLIOGRAPHY xxxv 

FORM  OF  TITLE-PAGE  OF  SECOND  EDITION    ...  xli 

THE  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA    .        .  1 

NOTES  AND  COMMENT 87 

QUESTIONS  AND  TOPICS  FOR  STUDY     .        .        .        .  115 

<^  Portrait  of  Edmund  Burke  [Romney]   .         .         .      Frontispiece 


INTRODUCTION 


BURKE'S   CAREER 

Edmund  Burke  was  born  in  Dublin,  in  1729.  He  was 
brought  up  in  the  Protestant  faith  of  his  father,  who  was 
an  attorney  of  good  repute  albeit  a  man  of  irritable  dis- 
position. His  mother,  a  Roman  Catholic,  was  a  large- 
minded  woman  of  good  family,  with  a  strong  hold  upon 
the  affection  and  reverence  of  her  son.  Next  to  hers,  the 
profoundest  influence  in  Burke's  early  years  was  exerted 
by  the  Quaker  schoolmaster  of  Ballitore,  a  village  some 
thirty  miles  from  Dublin,  who  taught  well  both  the  mind 
and  the  heart  of  his  pupil,  and  toward  whom  Burke 
cherished  a  lively  gratitude  as  long  as  he  lived.  In  1743 
Burke  entered  Dublin  University,  at  nearly  the  same 
time  with  Oliver  Goldsmith,  whom,  however,  it  does  not 
appear  that  he  knew  in  college  days.  Burke's  course  at 
the  University  was  unconventional;  not  dissipated,  but 
desultory »  He  enjoyed  the  studies  of  the  curriculum 
keenly,,  but  not  m  the  allotted  order ^  His  course  upon 
the  whole  formed  a  valuable  brooding  period  for  both 
mind  and  moral  purpose.  He  himself  describes  it  as  a 
series  of  passionate  sallies  into  various  heights  of  learn- 
ing, saying  that  he  passed  from  the  furor  mathematics, 


Tiii  INTRODUCTION 

through  the  furor  logicus  and  the  furor  historicus,  to  the 
furor  poeticus.  Like  young  Francis  Bacon,  he  took  all 
knowledge  to  be  his  province;  yet  he  left  the  University 
after  five  years  of  residence,  with  an  undistinguished 
Bachelor's  degree. 

Burke  was  twenty  when  he  arrived  in  London  and 
went  to  the  Middle  Temple  to  study  law,  according  to 
his  father's  wish.  But  his  interest  was  not  continuous, 
his  eager  pursuits  were  literary,  not  legal,  his  allowance 
from  home  was  withdrawn,  and  a  period  of  several  years 
began  which  passed  in  an  obscure  conflict  with  fortune. 

But  the  year  1756  brought  forth  not  only  the  publica- 
tion of  two  remarkable  essays — A  Vindication  of  Natural 
Society  and  A  Philosophical  Inquiry  into  the  Origin  of 
our  Ideas  of  the  Sublime  and  Beautiful — but  what  was  of 
even  more  lasting  import,  his  marriage  to  his  doctor's 
daughter,  Miss  Jane  Nugent.  By  this  marriage  Burke 
ensured  a  long  enjoyment  of  happy  and  peaceful  home 
life;  by  the  publication  of  his  essays  he  attained  in- 
stant recognition  as  a  young  man  of  unusual  literary 
promise. 

It  was  not  long  before  Dodsley,  the  bookseller  of  Pall 
Mall,  invited  Burke  to  write  for  him  an  account  of  the 
most  important  events  and  a  review  of  the  most  notable 
thought  of  the  current  year — 1759.  Burke's  work  was 
published  as  a  periodical  called  the  Annual  Register,  and 
the  editor  was  engaged  permanently  at  a  salary  of  £100 
a  year.  For  thirty  years  he  attended  faithfully  to  the 
duty  of  making  this  annual  chronicle,  often  glad  of  the 
secure  though  moderate  income  it  afforded.  For  six 
years  from  this  time  Burke  was  employed  as  secretary  by 


BURKE'S  CAREER  uc 

a  Mr.  Hamilton,  whose  official  duties  took  him  to  Ire- 
land. Upon  his  return  to  England  he  demanded,  what 
Burke  felt  was  unfair,  that  he  should  enjoy  his  secre- 
tary's undivided  service.  Burke  wished  to  employ  his 
spare  hours  in  original  literary  work,  and  felt  that  his 
gifts  called  on  him  to  do  so.  So  patron  and  pensioner 
separated,  in  1765. 

Burke  was  thirty-six  years  old,  a  struggling  author, 
with  a  wife  and  son,  with  social  obligations,  tastes,  and 
aspirations,  with  a  fixed  income  of  only  one  hundred 
pounds  a  year.  But  "England  had  need  of  him."  Lord 
Verney,  an  adherent  of  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham,  in- 
troduced him  to  his  patron,  and  saw  to  it  that  he  was 
given  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons,  as  representative 
of  Wendover,  a  pocket-borough  in  his  control.  The  king 
had  reluctantly  asked  Lord  Rockingham  to  form  a  cabi- 
net; that  nobleman,  with  no  less  insight  than  friendliness, 
made  Burke  his  private  secretary.  Thus  Hamilton's  loss 
was  Rockingham's  and  England's  gain;  for  in  the  brief 
but  eventful  ministry  of  Lord  Rockingham,  Burke  was 
the  secret  guiding  spirit,  making,  in  the  debate  which 
brought  about  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  a  deep  im- 
pression as  an  orator  and  publicist. 

Burke  was  now  thirty-seven  years  old,  with  the  follow- 
ing items  to  his  credit  in  the  material  ledger  of  life — 
some  literary  beginnings  of  note  and  promise,  the  sup- 
port of  a  modest  home,  and  one  year,  or  little  more,  in 
the  turmoil  of  parliamentary  life,  to  enter  which  usually 
meant  to  leave  all  other  hope  behind. 

The  sincerity  of  Burke's  attachment  to  the  person  and 
party  of  Rockingham  is  shown  by  his  declining  to  serve 


x  INTRODUCTION 

in  the  cabinet  of  his  successor,  the  great  William  Pitt, 
just  newly  made  the  Earl  of  Chatham.  But  he  proved 
himself  a  true  Rockingham  Whig  in  other  ways  as  well. 
He  worked  incessantly  to  strengthen  the  interest,  the  in- 
telligence, and  the  oratory  of  his  party  leaders,  and  sought 
every  chance  to  speak  or  write  for  the  establishment  of 
their  principles — the  maintenance  of  order  in  the  state, 
the  sacredness  of  vested  rights,  the  defense  of  constitu- 
tional freedom.  It  was  during  these  years  succeeding 
upon  the  brief  tenure  of  ministerial  power  by  his  friend 
and  patron,  that  Burke  wrote  his  Observations  on  the 
Present  State  of  the  Nation,  a  reply  to  a  pamphlet  by 
Lord  Grenville,  which  exhibited  a  power  of  dealing  with 
statistics  unsurpassed  even  by  Grenville  himself;  and 
this  valuable  paper  was  followed  a  year  later,  in  1770, 
by  one  still  more  important,  called  Thoughts  on  the 
Cause  of  the  Present  Discontents,  a  cool  and  vigorous 
analysis  of  political  conditions  as  they  existed  in  England, 
a  dispassionate  explanation  of  the  causes  which  had 
brought  them  about,  and  finally  an  exposition  of  the 
doctrines  which  Burke  believed  adequate  for  the  relief 
of  them.  It  was  by  such  means  that  he  sought  to  em- 
ploy his  incomparable  abilities  for  the  support  of  the 
Rockingham  Whigs  till  the  death  of  their  leader  in 
1782. 

In  1774,  Burke  delivered  his  Speech  on  American  Tax- 
ation, and  was  honored  with  an  unsought  election  to 
Parliament  from  Bristol,  then  commercially  the  second 
city  in  the  realm.  In  March  of  the  following  year  came 
his  still  greater  effort  in  behalf  of  a  wise  policy  toward 
the  colonies,  the  Speech  on  Conciliation  with  America. 


BURKE 'S  CAREER  xi 

After  the  war  of  American  Independence  had  continued 
for  two  years,  there  followed  Burke's  third  great  utter- 
ance on  this  subject — his  Letter  to  the  Sheriffs  of  Bristol, 
an  appeal  to  his  constituents  to  join  him  in  an  effort  to 
stop  the  American  war  by  a  generous  attempt  at  recon- 
ciliation. These  three  documents  on  American  affairs 
have  been  called  "an  example  without  fault  of  all  the 
qualities  which  the  critic  of  great  political  situations 
should  strive  by  night  and  by  day  to  possess — discourses 
in  which  the  world  will  recognize  the  combination  of 
sovereign  gifts  with  beneficent  uses."1 

When  Burke  was  obliged  finally  to  relinquish  hope  of 
moving  Lord  North  and  the  king  to  adopt  a  policy  of 
"honorable  and  liberal  accommodation"  toward  the  colo- 
nies, he  resorted  to  the  purification  of  political  conditions 
at  home.  His  special  desire  was  to  reduce  the  number 
of  political  pensions  and  sinecure  offices,  both  of  which 
were  being  brazenly  employed  as  bribes  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  Incidentally  he  reduced  the  expense  of  car- 
rying on  the  government:  the  salary  of  paymaster  of  the 
forces,  for  example,  being  cut  from  thirty  thousand  to 
four  thousand  pounds.  This  period  of  Burke's  activity, 
devoted  to  economical  reform,  closed  with  his  champion- 
ship of  two  measures  which  his  Bristol  constituents  dis- 
approved. But  Burke's  position  as  the  guardian  of 
justice  was  not  to  be  shaken;  he  stood  openly  and 
boldly,  if  in  a  calm  and  reasonable  manner,  for  toleration 
toward  the  Roman  Catholics  in  England,  and  against 
oppression  of  the  Irish  in  Ireland,  and  accepted  the  loss 
of  his  seat  in  Parliament  with  perfect  resignation,  when 
1  Motley;  Life  of  Edmund  Burke,  p.  78. 


rii  INTRODUCTION 

the  great  but  prejudiced  city  of  Bristol  failed  to  return 
him  in  the  elections  of  1780. 

This  was  the  time  when  Burke  began  to  apply  himself 
to  a  new  and  great  problem,  the  correction  of  abuses  in 
the  government  of  India.  Through  a  long  course  of  the 
deepest  and  most  painstaking  research  he  arrived  at  the 
same  high  degree  of  exact  familiarity  with  the  affairs  of 
India  as  had  marked  his  study  of  the  American  colonies; 
and  when,  in  1786,  it  was  determined  that  Warren  Hast- 
ings, the  brilliant  but  corrupt  governor  of  the  Indian 
empire,  was  to  suffer  impeachment  by  the  House  of 
Lords,  Burke  was  the  advocate  of  the  State  and  dis- 
tinguished himself  by  a  series  of  speeches  running 
through  the  long  trial,  which  closed  in  1794  with  the 
acquittal  of  the  great  accused — a  verdict  which  "if  it  did 
not  convict  the  man,  overthrew  the  system,  and  stamped 
its  principles  with  lasting  censure  and  shame."  Here  was 
a  veiled  success,  not  altogether  unlike  that  which  the  pass- 
ing years  had  already  accorded  to  Burke's  labors  on  be- 
half of  America. 

With  a  preparedness  no  less  full  in  thought  and  feel- 
ing, though  far  less  accurate  in  fact,  Burke  now  began  his 
championship  of  the  old  order  in  France,  as  opposed  to 
the  various  but  abhorrent  movements  of  the  French  people 
toward  republicanism.  The  overthrow  of  order,  the 
scorn  of  the  national  traditions,  especially  in  religion, 
the  trampling  of  royalty,  especially  of  the  dignity  of  that 
"daughter  of  the  Caesars"  whom  he  had  years  before 
adored  as  the  charming  dauphiness,  Marie  Antoinette — 
these  things  stirred  the  soul  of  Burke  to  one  long  final 
struggle.  From  1790,  when  his  Reflections  on  the  French 


BURKE'S  CAREER  jriii 

Revolution  was  published,  to  the  day  of  his  death,  in  1797, 
the  wrongs  of  the  old  order  in  France  and  the  consequent 
peril  of  the  old  order  in  England  as  well  as  the  rest  of 
Europe,  commanded  the  constant  service  of  Burke's  pen. 
With  great  eloquence,  with  prophetic  insight,  with  ever- 
growing popular  and  royal  praise,  he  chanted  his  paean, 
elaborated  his  theories,  and  screamed  his  passionate 
protests,  vituperations,  and  warnings. 

In  the  midst  of  this  prolonged  and  intense  conflict  with 
the  phlegmatic  forces  in  the  English  government,  which 
could  hardly  be  aroused  to  the  crusading  pitch,  we  find 
Burke  writing  two  widely  different  and  very  interesting 
papers.  One  was  his  Thoughts  and  Details  on  Scarcity 
— a  cool,  exact  treatise  on  economic  subjects  which  had 
long  occupied  his  mind;  the  other,  called  A  Letter  to  a 
Noble  Lord,  a  keen,  eloquent,  poised  defense  against  at- 
tacks (by  two  pampered  noblemen)  upon  the  pensions 
which  the  government  had  granted  him.  Nothing  of 
Burke's  is  better  worth  the  attention  of  a  busy  schoolboy 
than  this  letter,  which  has  been  called  "the  most  splendid 
repartee  in  the  English  language." 

Burke,  with  certain  limitations  of  temperament  and 
circumstance,  was  a  great  statesman.  His  knowledge 
was  extraordinary,  his  purpose  pure,  his  powers  em- 
ployed for  many  years  with  intense  devotion  to  the  wel- 
fare of  his  country.  He  was  a  philosopher  and  seer,  an 
orator,  debater,  counselor,  and  writer,  with  scarce  a  peer 
in  his  day  and  generation.  But  his  name  should  be 
known  and  revered  not  only  for  its  greatness,  but  for  its 
lovableness  as  well.  No  man  was  ever  more  gracious  to 
those  in  need,  or  more  ready  literally  to  divide  the  last 


riv  INTRODUCTION 

shilling  in  his  pocket.  His  beautiful  home,  the  Grego- 
ries  at  Beaconsfield,  still  shown  to  travelers,  not  far  from 
London,  was  the  asylum  of  any  orphan,  or  outcast,  or 
exile  who  chanced  in  Burke's  way.  His  love  for  his 
rather  vain  and  ineffectual  son,  Richard,  was  blind  and 
absolute,  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  Richard's 
death  in  1794,  just  as  hereditary  honors  were  to  be  be- 
stowed upon  the  family,  broke  his  father's  heart.  No 
man  in  England  had  warmer  or  more  loyal  friends.  He 
was  almost  the  first  of  Johnson's  Club,  and  the  affection 
these  heroes  of  the  old  order,  Burke  and  Johnson,  felt 
toward  each  other  was  changeless  and  profound.  They 
vied  with  each  other  first  in  the  battles  of  words  in 
which  they  towered  above  all  others  of  that  gifted  coterie, 
and  then  they  vied  with  equal  zest  in  proving  each  other 
worthy  of  preeminence.  Life-long  relations  of  intimacy 
existed  between  Burke  and  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  and 
they  worked  out  many  details  in  the  theory  of  art  to- 
gether. The  same  happy  sort  of  fellowship  was  enjoyed 
by  Burke  with  all  the  other  members  of  the  Literary 
Club.  And  his  friendship  with  Fox  was  so  long  and 
deep  that  the  breach  which  Burke  felt  compelled  to 
force  in  the  heat  of  debate  upon  French  affairs,  was 
viewed  by  their  fellow-members  of  the  House  almost  as 
a  public  calamity. 

Of  Burke's  personal  appearance  it  is  difficult  to  speak 
with  definiteness,  for  both  the  three  or  four  authentic 
portraits  we  have  of  him  are  quite  at  variance,  and  the 
descriptive  reminiscences  of  his  friends  are  almost  con- 
tradictory. One  thing  may  help  to  explain  these  dis- 
crepancies. He  was  so  absorbed  in  his  devotion  to  the 


BURKE'S  CAREER  xv 

public  business  that  he  took  on  a  quite  different,  a  more 
serious,  less  courtly  air  as  time  went  on.  So  it  may  be 
that  the  grace  and  gallantry  attributed  to  him  by  those 
who  met  him  socially,  were  as  truly  his  as  the  stocky, 
stuffy,  ungainly  figure  ascribed  to  him  by  others.  His 
oratory  is  pictured  as  violent  in  gesture,  vehement  and 
nasal  in  tone,  and  far  less  winning  and  persuasive  upon 
the  whole  than  his  speeches  were  in  print.  These  were 
eagerly  bought  and  widely  read;  and  with  intervals  in 
which  temporary  causes  operated  unfavorably,  every 
utterance  of  Burke,  as  long  as  he  lived,  was  looked  on  as 
the  utterance  of  one  of  England's  best  and  greatest  men. 
And  yet  it  is  only  with  the  lapse  of  years  and  the  more 
thorough  study  and  experience  of  man  in  the  exercise  of 
the  powers  of  free  government,  that  the  genius  and  in- 
sight of  his  political  philosophy  and  the  power  with 
which  it  is  put  forth,  are  taking  an  adequate  place  in  the 
respect  of  the  world  at  large.  How  just  and  sound 
Burke's  fundamental  principles  of  legislation  were,  can 
partly  be  discerned  from  the  following  set  of  rules  which 
have  been  drawn  by  inference  from  his  works:  Seek  to 
preserve  everything,  so  far  as  possible,  that  time  has  V 
consecrated;  adapt  the  operation  of  traditional  forces  to 
suit  present  co/iditions;  abhor  confusion,  and  shun  any 
policy  which  may  produce  it;  be  satisfied  with  less  than 
the  ideal;  be  generous  rather  than  exacting;  remember 
there  is  a  higher  justice  than  that  framed  in  the  law, 
and  that  all  laws  derive  their  efficacy  from  the  spirit  of 
obedience  in  the  people. 

With  these  views,  it  is  not  difficult  to  see  why  such  a 
man  took  and  steadily  maintained  a  sympathetic  and 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

enlightened  attitude  on  all  questions  concerning  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  American  colonies. 


II 


THE     SPEECH     ON     CONCILIATION     WITH 
AMERICA 

i.     Historical  Background 

From  the  year  1651,  when  Oliver  Cromwell's  govern- 
ment passed  the  first  Navigation  Act,  down  to  the  war 
which  broke  out  in  1775,  England  was  accustomed  to 
regulate  the  trade  of  her  American  Colonies.  She  had 
specified  certain  important  kinds  of  things,  such  as  hats, 
linen  and  woolen  goods,  iron,  and  steel,  which  should  be 
bought  in  England  rather  than  manufactured  in  America. 
She  had  insisted  that  the  colonists  should  buy  and  sell  in 
English,  not  in  foreign,  markets;  that  goods  must  be 
brought  in  and  sent  abroad  in  British  ships;  that  the 
Americans  must  import  slaves,  because  the  slaves  were 
bought  in  Africa  with  British  merchandise;  and  that 
goods  leaving  England  for  America,  and  goods  coming 
into  England  from  America  were  both  liable  to  the  pay- 
ment of  duties  at  the  English  ports. 

At  first  glance,  these  restrictions  upon  the  trade  of  the 
colonies  would  seem  heavy  enough  to  crush  their  com- 
mercial spirit,  and  arouse  deep  resentment  against  the 
government  which  imposed  such  "regulations."  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  colonial  commerce  grew  with  mar- 


SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  xvii 

velous  rapidity,  and  the  burdens  laid  upon  it  were  borne 
by  the  Americans  with  a  fairly  contented  mind.  In  the 
first  place,  it  lay  with  them  individually  to  choose  whether 
to  buy  or  not,  if  the  price  of  British  goods  seemed  high. 
In  the  next  place,  they  were  making  a  good  net  profit 
upon  their  trade  to  and  from  Britain.  They  were, 
furthermore,  well  aware  that  it  was  greatly  to  their 
advantage  that  British  capital  was  so  largely  invested  in 
the  various  enterprises  which  were  manned  by  the  citi- 
zens of  the  new  world — their  fisheries,  their  agriculture, 
their  shipbuilding  and  their  trade.  Moreover,  the  sense 
of  kinship  was  strong  in  them — they  felt  an  unshaken 
loyalty  in  their  mother  country — none  the  less  confiding 
because  some  of  the  regulations  upon  their  trade  were 
tacitly  omitted  in  the  enforcement,  and  others  violated  by 
wholesale  smuggling. 

But  as  the  colonies  prospered  and  as  their  reputation 
for  wealth  grew  more  and  more  impressive  to  the  minds 
of  British  statesmen,  ideas  of  an  "American  revenue" 
gradually  began  to  form;  and  in  1763,  when  the  close  of 
the  war  with  France  left  both  England  and  America 
oppressed  with  debt,  the  king,  George  III,  was  advised 
by  his  ministers  of  finance,  first  Charles  Townshend,  then 
George  Grenville,  that  the  time  had  come  when  the  rich 
colonies  should  be  taxed  for  the  relief  of  the  national 
treasury,  and  the  trade  laws  more  rigidly  enforced  in 
the  interests  of  honesty  and  British  commerce.  The 
former  policy  of  indirect,  or  external,  taxation,  was  to 
be  supplemented  with  a  direct  revenue,  raised  in  America, 
not  only  for  the  purpose  of  reducing  the  French  and  In- 
dian war-debt,  but,  what  was  particularly  abhorrent  to 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

the  colonists,  for  supporting  in  their  midst  a  royal  army 
of  twenty  thousand  men.  The  fact  that  the  colonial 
assemblies  were  and  had  been  generously  giving  of  their 
own  free  will  to  reduce  the  British  war  burden  was  ig- 
nored. So  were  the  warnings  of  certain  well-informed 
friends  of  America,  who  reminded  the  ministry  and  the 
great  executive  commission  known  as  the  Lords  of 
Trade,  of  the  colonial  situation  and  point  of  view.  It 
was  determined  to  establish  a  new  order  of  things,  and 
this  determination,  was  very  popular  in  England.  So 
steps  were  taken  to  draw  forth  a  colonial  revenue  at  the 
behest  of  the  imperial  parliament.  Grenville  exercised 
great  patience  and  the  best  tact  of  which  he  was  master, 
but  on  the  main  issue  of  raising  taxes  in  the  colonies  his 
mind  was  fixed,  and  his  determination  was  strongly 
backed  by  the  king. 

So  when  in  1765  the  colonists  w.ere  required  to  buy 
stamps  for  the  legalizing  of  every  sort  of  transaction  and 
publication,  America  showed  a  new  and  rebellious  mood. 
There  arose  instantly  a  universal  and  passionate  cry  of 
protest.  The  Stamp  Act  required  a  direct  contribution 
to  the  royal  treasure  box;  the  income  from  it  was  to  be 
used  in  ways  which  threatened  to  undermine  time- 
honored  colonial  rights;  and  it  was  a  compulsory  tax, 
laid  by  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain — a  body  in 
which  no  colony  had  a  voice.  Hot  speeches  were  made, 
and  earnest  petitions  were  presented  to  the  king.  His 
majesty's  agents  were  terrorized  and  their  stamps  stolen 
and  destroyed  or  hid.  But  the  really  effective  measure 
was  taken  at  a  general  congress  of  the  colonies  held  in 
New  York,  when  it  was  resolved  to  avoid  all  importation 


SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  six 

and  use  of  British  manufactures  till  the  obnoxious  act 
should  be  repealed — a  boycott  of  the  merchants  of  Eng- 
land which  soon  brought  those  weighty  citizens  to  the 
doors  of  Parliament  with  urgent  requests  for  the  repeal 
of  the  Stamp  Act.  Parliament,  in  1766,  with  Rocking- 
ham  as  Prime  Minister,  first  passed  an  act  declaring  the 
king's  rights  m  the  colonies  absolute,  and  then,  on 
grounds  of  expediency,  repealed  the  one  law  which  had 
put  these  rights  to  a  supreme  test.  The  Declaratory  Act, 
however,  did  no  harm,  and  the  Repeal  was  a  great  relief 
and  blessing  to  both  parties  to  the  controversy. 

Yet  within  two  years  after  this  wholesome  repeal  of 
the  Stamp  Act,  when  the  colonies  were  regaining  their 
former  faith  in  England's  good  will,  Parliament,  now 
under  the  leadership  of  Charles  Townshend,  passed  a 
second  revenue  act,  calling  for  customs  duties  on  six 
kinds  oi  British  goods  to  be  collected  at  the  American 
ports,  and  designating  the  way  in  which  the  proceeds 
should  be  employed.  Both  the  idea  of  the  collection  of 
revenue  and  the  idea  of  rendering  the  royal  governor  and 
the  royal  judges  dependent  on  the  king  for  salary,  were 
utterly  unsatisfactory  to  the  Americans.  By  peaceful 
and  by  violent  means  they  made  their  sentiments  felt, 
and  in  1770,  at  the  beginning  of  Lord  North's  ministry, 
they  obtained  a  partial  concession.  Parliament  relin- 
quished, not  the  offensive  principle  of  taxation,  but  the 
actual  demand  for  revenue  upon  all  the  articles  except 
tea.  Burke  and  others  who  knew  the  American  mind, 
urged  the  total  and  unequivocal  repeal  of  the  Revenue 
Act,  but  in  vain.  The  king  now  looked  upon  the  tax  on 
tea  as  essential  proof  of  England's  right  to  levy  taxes  on 


xx  INTRODUCTION 

her  colonies,  and  would  listen  to  no  argument  or  appeal. 

The  tax  on  tea  may  have  illustrated  England's  right  to 
a  colonial  revenue;  it  did  not  prove  her  power  to  secure 
one.  The  Americans  refused  to  buy  tea  from  the  East 
India  Company,  and  that  great  and  favored  monopoly 
found  itself  with  an  excess  of  ten  million  pounds  in  its 
warehouses,  and  no  colonial  demand.  Parliament  sought 
to  aid  by  coercing  the  colonists;  they  threw  ship-loads  of 
tea  into  Boston  Harbor.  Parliament  retorted  with  the 
Boston  Port  Bill,  the  Transportation  Act,  and  other 
punitive  measures,  forcibly  quartering  troops  upon  the 
colonists;  they  united  for  the  defence  of  their  liberties, 
holding  at  Philadelphia,  in  1774,  the  First  Continental 
Congress,  and  organizing  the  Colonial  Militia.  Parlia- 
ment despatched  an  army  to  enforce  its  authority,  and 
passed  penal  and  restrictive  legislation;  and  the  climax 
of  all  this  play  of  hostile  interests  befell  on  the  nineteenth 
of  April,  at  Lexington. 

Now,  during  the  decade  which  began  with  the  attempt 
to  enforce  the  Stamp  Act  in  1765,  and  closed  with  the 
outbreak  of  hostilities  in  1775,  it  was  found  that  America 
had  certain  friends  in  the  British  Parliament.  Of  these 
the  most  notable  were  the  elder  Pitt,  who,  in  1767,  be- 
came the  Earl  of  Chatham  and  entered  the  House  of 
Lords,  and  Edmund  Burke,  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
Macaulay  says  in  his  Second  Essay  on  the  Earl  of 
Chatham:  "Two  great  orators  and  statesmen,  belonging 
to  two  different  generations,  repeatedly  put  forth  all  their 
powers  in  defence  of  the  bill  [for  repealing  the  Stamp 
Act].  The  House  of  Commons  neard  Pitt  for  the  last 
time,  and  Burke  for  the  first  time,  and  was  in  doubt  to 


SPEECH  ON   CONCILIATION  vd 

which  of  them  the  palm  of  eloquence  should  be  assigned. 
It  was  a  splendid  sunset  and  a  splendid  dawn."  Chatham, 
though  immensely  effective  at  times,  was  prevented  from 
doing  all  he  wished  to  do  for  America  by  great  bodily 
afflictions.  Burke,  though  without  the  prestige  of  high 
office  or  great  fame,  brought  to  bear  upon  colonial  ques- 
tions the  full  power  of  his  extraordinary  talents  in  their 
prime.  His  was  the  guiding  intellect  in  the  time  of  the 
first  Rockingham  ministry,  which  accomplished  the  re- 
peal of  the  Stamp  Act,  in  1766.  He  delivered,  in  1774, 
in  the  debate  on  the  repeal  of  the  tax  on  tea,  his  irrefut- 
able speech  on  A  merican  Taxation.  And  in  March  of  the 
following  year,  when  the  bonds  of  union  were  strained  to 
the  snapping  point,  he  made  one  final  effort  to  reestablish 
confidence  between  the  obstinate  government  and  its 
fiery  subjects — his  speech  on  Conciliation  with  America. 

2.    A  Brief  of  the  Speech  in  Outline. 

Burke's  Speech  on  Conciliation  was  a  plea  for  giving 
up  the  one  sort  of  legislation  which  the  history  of  the 
colonies  had  proved  unwise,  namely,  the  imposition  of 
direct  taxes  by  a  parliament  in  which  the  Englishmen 
resident  in  the  colonies  were  not  represented.  This  plea 
consisted,  on  the  one  hand,  of  an  attack  upon  the  revenue 
scheme  or  "project"  which  Lord  North,  Prime  Minister 
since  1770,  had  recently  submitted  to  the  House  of  Com- 
mons; and,  on  the  other,  of  the  presentation  of  Burke's 
own  plan  for  restoring  friendly  relations  between  Eng- 
land and  her  American  dependencies. 

Burke's  plan,  however  wise  and  just,   involved  a  very 


xxii  INTRODUCTION 

difficult  thing  for  Parliament  to  do,  and  a  thing  still 
more  difficult  for  King  George  and  his  ministers  to 
sanction, — the  taking  of  an  attitude  of  forbearance  to- 
ward the  proud  and  angry  colonies.  Lord  North's 
project  was  formed  on  a  much  lower  and  easier  plane. 
It  proposed  to  bring  to  submission  the  leaders  of  rebellion 
by  an  appeal  to  the  self-interest  of  the  colonies  at  large. 
It  was  based  upon  the  old  Roman  doctrine,  "Divide  et 
impera"  (Rule  by  creating  internal  dissensions),  and  was 
called  A  Plan  for  Conciliating  the  Differences  with 
America.  It  offered  inducements  to  any  colony  to  sub- 
scribe, according  to  its  ability,  to  the  fund  out  of  which 
the  king  was  to  pay  his  judges,  his  governors,  and  his 
troops.  Burke's  position  was  one  which  in  those  bitter 
days  the  ruling  powers  could  not  bring  themselves  to 
assume;  Lord  North's  proposals  were  too  subtle  and  too 
sordid  to  suit  the  lofty  spirit  of  the  Americans. 

The  colonies  had  no  objection  to  paying  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  civil  officers  and  the  local  troops  required  for 
the  public  safety.  But  they  wished  to  be  permitted  to 
continue  the  immemorial  custom  of  paying  these  charges 
from  the  strong  boxes  of  their  own  colonial  assemblies, 
and  they  were  ardently  jealous  of  the  attempt  to  tax 
them  for  the  maintenance  of  royal  troops  in  their  midst. 
The  error  in  the  project  of  Lord  North  lay,  therefore, 
not  in  the  mere  demand  that  the  colonies  should  sub- 
scribe for  the  keeping  up  of  civil  and  military  establish- 
ments, but  in  the  loss  of  independence  involved  in  having 
these  establishments  paid  by  the  king  and  therefore  con- 
trolled by  his  pleasure.  Burke  saw  in  this  project 
essentially  the  same  menacing  principle  which  had 


SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  xxiii 

aroused  passionate  opposition  to  the  Stamp  Act  and  the 
tax  on  tea,  and  in  his  Speech  on  Conciliation  tried  his 
best  to  prevent  the  adoption  of  it.  But  it  passed  both 
Houses  of  Parliament,  received  the  royal  signature, 
reached  the  Continental  Congress  sitting  at  Philadelphia 
in  May,  1775,  and  was  there  unhesitatingly  repudiated 
by  the  colonies,  who  were  already  at  war  against  the  idea 
it  embodied. 

But  Burke's  speech  not  only  exposed  the  fallacies  of 
Lord  North's  plan.  It  offered  a  plain  and  practical  sub- 
stitute. Burke  knew  the  history  of  the  American  ques- 
tion as  no  other  Englishman  knew  it.  By  birth  and 
training  he  was  in  sympathy  with  the  spirit  and  character 
of  the  American  colonist.  He  reasoned  that  tyranny 
would  defeat  itself;  that  only  generous  treatment  would 
suffice  to  call  forth  a  generous  response;  that  up  to  1763, 
when  the  new  idea  of  an  American  revenue  became  popu- 
lar, the  treatment  and  the  response  had,  as  a  matter  of 
history,  been  generous  and  mutually  satisfactory.  His 
idea  was,  therefore,  simply  to  return  to  that  system 
which  experience  had  proved  favorable  to  the  peace  and 
prosperity  of  the  empire — the  system  of  regulating  trade, 
and  laying  external  duties,  but  of  allowing  the  colonists 
the  Englishman's  traditional  privilege  of  voting  his  own 
taxes  and  of  controlling  the  administration  of  the  rev- 
enues so  raised.  The  following  brief,  while  it  shows  the 
general  scope  and  proportions  of  the  speech,  does  not  aim 
to  show  the  weight  and  texture  of  the  argument.  These 
can  be  appreciated  only  by  a  keen  study  of  the  speech 
itself. 
I.  Ingratiation  (paragraphs  1-8): 


xxiv  INTRODUCTION 

Formal  introduction  of  the  subject.  Burke's  right 
to  speak  upon  it,  though  a  member  of  the  opposition. 

II.  Theme  (paragraphs  9-14): 

Peace,  which  all  desire,  may  be  secured  by  con- 
cession: 

a.  Is  it  England's  duty  to  concede  to  America  ? 

b.  If  so,  what  shall  the  concession  be? 

III.  The  essential  Facts  about  America   (paragraphs 
15-44): 

The  wisdom  of  concession  must  be  studied  in  the 
light  of  the  circumstances  and  the  character  of  the 
colonists : 

a.  Circumstances:  population,  commerce,  agri- 
culture, fisheries. 

b.  Character:    a  passionate  love  of  liberty,  espe- 
cially in  exercising  the  privilege  of  self -taxation. 
This  spirit  of  liberty  arises  from  six  causes. 

[Digression  against  the  employment  of  Force  in 
dealing  with  America,  paragraphs  31-35.] 

IV.  The  main  Argument  (paragraphs  45-89): 

Win  back  the  old  confidence  of  the  colonies  by 
granting  the  essential  point  at  issue — the  privilege  of 
self-taxation: 

a.  Argument  by  Exclusion  proves  concession 
the  only  possible  method  of  securing  peace. 

b.  History  gives  evidence  of  the  efficacy  of  this 
method. 

V.  The  Resolutions  (paragraphs  90-116): 

Thirteen  resolutions  embody  the  idea  of  restoring 
the  colonies  to  their  former  unsuspecting  confidence 


SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  xxv 

in  the  mother  country,  by  giving  them  their  old  share 
or  interest  in  the  Constitution: 

a.  Six  main  resolutions,  each  argued  in  detail; 

b.  Seven  corollary  resolutions. 

VI.  Refutation  (paragraphs  117-136): 

An  attack  on  Lord  North's  project  for  raising 
revenue: 

a.  This  plan  does  violence  to  human  nature 
under  American  conditions. 

6.    There  is  no  chance  of  its  successful  operation. 

c.  Contrast  between  the  project  for  exacting 
revenue,  and  the  plan  for  regaining  the  allegiance 
of  the  colonies  through  concession. 

VII.  Peroration  (paragraphs  137-140): 

Burke  exhorts  Parliament  to  believe  that  mag- 
nanimity in  the  ruler  is  the  surest  way  to  secure 
loyalty  in  the  subject,  and  closes  his  speech  by  mov- 
ing his  resolutions. 

Thus  is  seen  the  double  purpose  in  the  speech.  So 
far  as  it  merely  refuted  the  project  of  Lord  North,  it  was 
critical  or  negative.  But  when,  in  the  course  of  his  at- 
tack upon  the  ministerial  program,  Burke  brought  for- 
ward a  plan  of  his  own,  and  argued  for  it  and  moved  its 
adoption,  his  speech  became  an  effort  of  constructive 
statecraft.  We  have  seen  that  it  did  not  suffice  to  with- 
hold the  project  from  complete  ratification;  it  was  equally 
ineffective  as  an  appeal  to  accept  a  substitute.  Parlia- 
ment was  not  ready  for  anything  so  reasonable,  or  so  con- 
siderate of  the  "rebellious  wretches"  across  the  sea.  It 
is  doubtful  whether  there  was  time  to  make  peace  even  if 
Burke's  resolutions  had  been  cordially  adopted.  The  time 


xxvi  INTRODUCTION 

came,  and  that  in  two  years  only,  when  king  and  minis- 
ters publicly  acknowledged  the  essential  truth  and  wis- 
dom of  his  resolutions.  But  the  Battle  of  Lexington 
and  Concord  was  fought  less  than  a  month  after  the  de- 
livery of  this  speech,  and  the  seven  years'  conflict  begun, 
which  burst  forever  the  political  bonds  between  the  in- 
surgent Americans  and  their  British  king. 

3.    Form  and  Style. 

As  has  been  shown  in  the  brief  which  precedes,  Burke's 
opening  words  are  directed  toward  a  good  understanding 
with  his  audience.  Every  classical  oration,  that  is,  one 
formed  upon  the  models  of  the  great  orators  of  Greece 
and  Rome,  opens  with  some  such  introductory  formality, 
called  by  the  rhetoricians  the  ingratiation. 

When  Burke  feels  that  he  has  sufficiently  explained 
himself,  he  makes  an  expression,  as  tactful  as  he  can,  of 
the  tJieme,  or  question,  which  he  wishes  to  debate. 

His  next  step  is  to  portray  the  growing  wealth  and  dig- 
nity of  the  American  colonies.  In  this  passage,  conven- 
tionally known  as  the  statement  of  facts,  Burke  surpasses 
himself  in  the  art  in  which  he  is  an  unequaled  master,  the 
art  of  making  statistics  effective  in  debate. 

The  main  argument  upon  this  question  (as  to  how 
England  shall  deal  with  the  colonial  passion  for  self- 
taxation)  is  divided  into  the  argument  by  exclusion  and 
the  argument  by  historical  analogy.  The  argument  by 
exclusion  shows  that  there  are  only  three  conceivable 
ways  in  which  England  could  treat  America;  and  that 
as  the  first  two  of  these  ways  are  unwise,  the  third  must 


SPEECH   ON   CONCILIATION  xxvii 

be  the  right  way.  This  is  obviously  a  kind  of  argument 
which  depends  on  a  full  enumeration  of  the  possibilities, 
and  therefore  could  not  do  final  and  effective  service  by 
itself.  The  argument  from  history  here  comes  in  and 
affords  positive  proof  of  the  wisdom  of  this  third  way, 
the  policy  of  conciliation  through  concession,  by  citing 
the  happy  experience  which  England  has  had  with  four 
other  rebellious  dependencies — Ireland,  Wales,  Chester, 
and  Durham.  By  analogy,  peace  will  follow  the  grant- 
ing of  constitutional  privileges  in  America  as  surely  as  it 
has  done  in  these  provinces. 

Burke  then  brings  forward  the  resolutions  in  which  he 
has  embodied  his  plan  for  securing  peace  with  America. 
When  he  has  argued  for  these  one  by  one,  and  then  all 
together,  he  makes  what  is  technically  known  as  his 
refutation,  by  attacking  the  "project"  of  Lord  North. 

Finally  (paragraphs  137-140)  comes  the  peroration, 
the  closing  passage,  with  which  an  orator  should  be  best 
content  to  leave  his  listeners,  who  are  supposed  to  have 
been  raised  gradually  to  the  point  of  sympathy  or  enthu- 
siasm. It  is  here  that  we  have  the  fullest  warrant  to  look 
for  eloquent  terms  and  a  strong  uplift. 

Matthew  Arnold  has  made  an  illuminating  observation 
on  the  power  of  Burke  as  a -political  writer,  in  the  sentence, 
"What  makes  Burke  stand  out  so  splendidly  among  poli- 
ticians is  that  he  treats  politics  with  his  thought  and  im- 
agination." Burke's  secret  does  not  lie  in  the  soundness 
of  his  philosophy  alone;  he  vivifies  his  reasoning  with 
imagination.  Even  commercial  statistics  are  made  to 
seem  alive;  and  on  occasion  the  art  of  a  poet  is  drawn 
upon  to  embellish  the  expression  of  his  thought.  How 


xxviii  INTRODUCTION 

easily  a  mere  debater  could  have  passed  by  the  whale- 
fisheries  of  New  England  with  a  bare  statement  of  their 
big  areas,  stupendous  tonnage,  and  importance  to  English 
trade.  But  Burke  treats  the  fishermen  with  his  imagina- 
tion (paragraph  30). 

The  clear  vision  of  which  Arnold  spoke  peers  into  the 
history  of  Wales  under  penal  regulation  and  sees: 

"That  all  the  while  Wales  rid  this  kingdom  like  an  incubus; 
that  it  was  an  unprofitable  and  oppressive  burden;  and  that  an 
Englishman  traveling  in  that  country  could  not  go  six  yards  from 
the  highroad  without  being  murdered." 

It  peers  into  the  geography  of  America: 

"If  you  drive  the  people  from  one  place,  they  will  carry  on 
their  annual  tillage  and  remove  with  their  flocks  and  herds  to 
another.  .  .  .  Already  they  have  topped  the  Appalachian 
mountains.  From  thence  they  behold  before  them  an  immense 
plain,  one  vast,  rich,  level  meadow, — a  square  of  five  hundred 
miles." 

It  peers  into  the  very  hearts  of  the  Americans  and  sym- 
pathizes with  their  passionate  love  of  freedom,  with  their 
religious  prejudices,  their  social  tendencies;  and  it  sees 
the  English  kinship  with  these  passions  as  a  living  truth : 

"We  cannot,  I  fear,  falsify  the  pedigree  of  this  fierce  people  and 
persuade  them  that  they  are  not  sprung  from  a  nation  in  whose 
veins  the  blood  of  freedom  circulates.  The  language  in  which 
they  would  hear  you  tell  them  this  tale  would  detect  the  imposi- 
tion; your  speech  would  betray  you.  An  Englishman  is  the 
unfittest  person  on  earth  to  argue  another  Englishman  into 
slavery." 

Upon  the  ill-omened  projects  of  tyranny  it  looks  with 
the  eye  of  scornful  condemnation.  Burke  is  speaking  of 


SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  xxix 

the  plan  to  free  the  slaves  that  they  may  fight  against 
their  masters: 

"An  offer  of  freedom  from  England  would  come  rather  oddly, 
shipped  to  them  in  an  African  vessel,  which  is  refused  an  entry 
into  the  ports  of  Virginia  or  Carolina,  with  a  cargo  of  three  hun- 
dred Angola  negroes.  It  would  be  curious  to  see  the  Guinea  cap- 
tain attempting  at  the  same  instant  to  publish  his  proclamation  of 
liberty  and  to  advertise  his  sale  of  slaves." 

These  passages  lose  much  by  the  fact  of  quotation.  In 
their  places,  coming  as  they  do  from  a  high  exercise  of 
the  imagination,  they  often  produce  the  effect  of  great 
poetry.  But  his  speech  is  by  no  means  all  in  this  lofty 
vein.  Professor  Bliss  Perry  says,  "Burke  could  always 
be  gorgeous  when  he  chose,  and  severe  when  he  must." 
And  in  the  Speech  on  Conciliation  there  is  no  dearth  of 
passages  of  severe  prose.  As  debate  pure  and  simple,  it 
is  surpassed  by  the  Speech  on  American  Taxation,  of  the 
year  before,  for  that  was  incomparably  keen,  exact,  and 
telling  in  its  use  of  facts  and  force  of  language  from  the 
debater's  point  of  view.  In  the  broader  sense  of  a  delib- 
erative argument,  appealing  to  large  considerations,  broad 
truths,  and  eternal  principles  of  conduct,  the  present 
speech  rises  supreme  as  a  political  document,  both  in 
substance  and  in  form.  Burke's  great  contemporary, 
Fox,  himself  an  orator  of  the  first  rank,  "urged  members 
of  Parliament  to  peruse  the  Speech  on  Conciliation  again 
and  again,  to  study  it,  to  imprint  it  on  their  minds,  to  im- 
press it  on  their  hearts." 

The  style  of  Burke  is  elegant  in  the  old  and  true  sense 
of  the  word.  There  is  no  vulgar  commonplace,  no  appeal 
to  cheap  applause,  no  hot  invective.  An  air  of  dignity 


xxx  INTRODUCTION 

pervades  his  utterance;  his  manner  is  that  of  a  "gentle- 
man of  the  old  school." 

"Fortunately  I  am  not  obliged  for  the  ways  and  means  of  this 
substitute  to  tax  my  own  unproductive  invention.  I  am  not  even 
obliged  to  go  to  the  rich  treasury  of  the  fertile  framers  of  imagin- 
ary commonwealths,  not  to  the  Republic  of  Plato,  not  to  the 
Utopia  of  More,  not  to  the  Oceana  of  Harrington.  It  is  before 
me,  it  is  at  my  feet; — 

'And  the  rude  swain 
Treads  daily  on  it  with  his  clouted  shoon.'" 

It  is  as  part  of  this  poised  and  high-bred  manner  that 
we  interpret  those  quaint  apologies  and  deprecations, 
those  compliments  and  innuendoes  which  enliven  the 
page. 

But  there  is  a  deeper  explanation  of  the  elegance  of 
Burke's  style.  His  spirit  is  high.  Grandeur  is  native  to 
him;  it  breathes  forth  from  his  lips  as  unconsciously  as 
goodness  welled  from  his  heart.  And  those  full  periods, 
perfect  in  continuity,  roll  off  with  a  rhythm  which  can- 
not but  be  sustained,  because  it  is  the  rhythm  of  the 
thought  or  emotion  itself.  Burke's  phrasing  is  as  rotund, 
his  turns  of  thought  as  quick  and  varied,  as  those  of 
Johnson  at  his  best,  and  for  much  the  same  reason.  Both 
were  great  men  speaking  from  their  hearts,  in  an  age 
which  had  not  yet  chastened  the  poetry  out  of  daily 
speech.  The  passage  which  best  illustrates  these  quali- 
ties is  too  long  to  quote  here,  but  it  will  never  be  thought 
too  long  to  read, — paragraphs  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
seven  and  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight,  beginning,  "For 
that  service,  for  all  service,  whether  of  revenue,  trade  or 
empire,  my  trust  is  in  her  interest  in  the  British  consti- 
tution." 


SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  xxxi 

Passing  over  the  various  figures  of  speech  of  the  more 
obvious  kind,  which,  however,  Burke  employs  not  only 
freely  but  supremely  well  (note,  for  example,  his  use  of 
metaphor,  paragraph  133),  there  is  an  element  of  beauty 
in  his  style  which  is  not  less  remarkable  because  it  is  per- 
vasive, and  incapable  of  scientific  analysis.  What  I  refer 
to  is  a  certain  enrichment  of  his  language  with  treasures 
from  his  reading.  Sometimes  this  takes  the  form  of 
quotation,  but  more  commonly  of  a  passing  allusion,  sug- 
gested rather  than  made,  to  some  cherished  phrase, 
which  not  only  expresses  the  desired  thought,  but  con- 
veys with  it  the  subdued  charm  of  association.  Freedom 
is  a  "common  blessing,  and  as  broad  and  general  as  the 
air";  " Clouds  indeed  and  darkness  rest  upon  the 
future";  "When  the  day-star  of  the  English  constitu- 
tion had  arisen  in  their  hearts";  "The  immense,  ever- 
growing, eternal  debt  which  is  due  to  generous  govern- 
ment from  protected  freedom";  "These  are  ties  which, 
though  light  as  air,  are  as  strong  as  links  of  iron."  It  is 
in  such  rich  fragments  as  these  from  Shakespeare,  Milton, 
the  Bible,  that  Burke  naturally  expresses  himself,  occa- 
sionally giving  from  these  sources  or  from  his  favorite 
Latin  poets  a  more  literal  quotation.  His  eloquent 
Sursum  corda  is  drawn  from  the  Roman  Catholic  lit- 
urgy, while  from  the  Philadelphia  Address  to  Great 
Britain  echoes  that  telling  phrase  "the  former  unsus- 
pecting confidence  in  the  mother  country."  The  legends 
of  the  Minotaur  and  of  the  Roman  daughter  contribute 
to  his  descriptions;  picturesque  events  in  history  afford 
him  illustrations,  while  nothing  satisfies  the  demand  of 
his  critical  imagination  but  the  most  definite  and  pic- 


xxxii  INTRODUCTION 

turesque  details.  The  mountains  are  Appalachian,  the 
outlaws  are  English  Tartars;  it  is  Angola  negroes  whom 
the  Guinea  captain  seeks  to  import,  into  Virginia  and 
Carolina. 

But  though  the  beauties  of  Burke's  style  are  the  beau- 
ties of  poetry,  his  prose  is  a  true  prose,  and  has  the  excel- 
lences of  prose.  There  is  no  need  to  dwell  upon  the 
means  by  which  Burke  perfects  the  sequence  of  sentences 
and  paragraphs,  or  the  nice  ratio  between  theme  and  am- 
plification, or  the  variety  and  force  of  his  phrases,  or  the 
accuracy  and  vigor  of  his  vocabulary.  These  things  are 
self-evident.  It  may  be  well,  however,  to  touch  upon  one 
virtue  of  his  prose  language  which  is  possessed  in  equal 
perfection  by  few  orators.  I  mean  his  ingenuity  in  neatly 
expressing  what  would  naturally  have  been  considered 
inexpressible  except  in  many  and  perhaps  awkward 
words.  I  will  cite  a  few  examples  of  this  skilful  com- 
pression, though  they  lose  their  keenest  point  when 
isolated:  "Considering  force  not  as  an  odious,  but  a 
feeble  instrument"  (paragraph  31);  "Terror  is  not  al- 
ways the  effect  of  force,  and  an  armament  is  not  a  vic- 
tory" (paragraph  33);. "Will  it  not  teach  them  that  the 
government  against  which  a  claim  of  liberty  is  tanta- 
mount to  high  treason  is  a  government  to  which  submis- 
sion is  equivalent  to  slavery?"  (paragraph  60);  "But 
courts  incommodiously  situated  in  effect  deny  justice; 
and  a  court  partaking  in  the  fruits  of  its  own  condemna- 
tion is  a  robber"  (paragraph  116). 

The  student's  total  impression  of  Burke's  English  is 
not  only  that  it  serves  the  orator's  conscious  purpose, 
furthering  with  sincerity  and  vividness  the  granting  of 


SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION  xxxiii 

constitutional  freedom  to  America;  but  that  to  the 
furthest  limit  of  thought  or  imagination, — of  exposition, 
enforcement,  summary,  refutation,  of  description,  illus- 
tration, or  appeal, — the  subserviency  of  his  style  is 
perfect  and  unconscious.  It  is  part  of  the  man. 


DESCRIPTIVE    BIBLIOGRAPHY 

There  is  one  complete  and  easily  available  edition  of 
Burke's  works,  published  by  Little,  Brown  &  Co.,  Bos- 
ton, in  twelve  volumes,  crown  octavo.  By  the  same 
house  has  been  issued  the  Beaconsfield  edition,  in  eight 
volumes.  Burke's  Select  Works,  edited  with  valuable 
introductions  by  E.  J.  Payne,  is  published  by  the  Clar- 
endon Press  in  three  volumes.  F.  G.  Selby  has  edited 
three  distinct  volumes,  compact,  inexpensive,  satisfac- 
tory, which  are  published  by  the  Macmillan  Company. 
If  one  can  add  only  one  Burke  volume  to  his  library,  he 
should  get  Bliss  Perry's  Selections  from  Burke,  published 
by  Henry  Holt  &  Co.  It  contains  material  for  a  broad 
and  just  examination  of  Burke's  range  of  authorship. 

Of  biographies  of  Burke,  Lord  Morley's,  in  the  Eng- 
lish Men  of  Letters  series  (Harper  &  Bros.)  is  the  best 
and  at  the  same  time  the  most  compact.  Sir  James 
Prior's  (Bell  &  Co.,  London)  is  simple,  friendly,  full  of 
detail.  To  get  the  mordant  comment  of  a  shrewd  con- 
temporary of  Burke's,  read  Charles  Wentworth  Dilke's 
Papers  of  a  Critic  (Murray,  London).  Equally  keen, 
but  fairer,  is  Hazlitt's  essay  On  the  Character  of  Burke, 
in  Sketches  and  Essays  (Bell  &  Sons,  London).  For 
criticism  of  an  interpretive  sort,  read  F.  D.  Maurice's 
lectures  on  Burke  in  his  Friendship  of  Books;  it  is  dis- 
cerning and  luminous. 

To  get  just  views  of  the  historical  background  of  the 


xxxvi  DESCRIPTIVE  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Speech  on  Conciliation,  one  should  read  both  the  Ameri- 
can and  the  British  story  of  the  period.  Out  of  the 
boundless  variety  of  material  it  may  be  proper  to  suggest 
a  few  sources  of  high  value.  There  are  the  biographies  of 
the  men  concerned,  those  of  Burke  and  his  contempora- 
ries in  British  public  life;  on  the  American  side  especially 
the  life  of  Benjamin  Franklin  in  the  American  Statesmen 
series.  For  histories,  Fiske's  Beginnings  of  New  Eng- 
land, Bancroft's  United  States,  Green's  English  People, 
Lecky's  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  and 
Trevelyan's  American  Revolution. 

The  most  notable  of  Burke' s  published  works  are 
given  below,  with  approximate  dates  and  an  occasional 
explanatory  note: 

1756.  A  Vindication  of  Natural  Society  or,  A  View  of  the 
Miseries  and  Evils  Arising  to  Mankind  from  every  Species  of 

Artificial  Society;  in  a  letter  to  Lord ,  by  a  late  Noble  Writer. 

A  piece  of  casuistry,  imitating  the  style  of  Lord  Bolingbroke  so 
successfully  as  to  deceive  the  keenest  critics. 

1756.  A  Philosophical  Inquiry  into  the  Origin  of  our  Ideas  on 
the  Sublime  and  the  Beautiful. 

1757.  An  Account  of  the  European  Settlements  in  America. 

A  story  of  the  colonization  and  early  civilization  of  both  North 
and  South  America;  full  of  romantic  incidents  and  fascinating 
description,  and  written  in  an  easy  and  alluring  style. 

1757.  An  Essay  towards  an  Abridgment  of  the  English  History. 
A  most  readable  narrative  of  early  English  civilization.  It  ends 
with  the  reign  of  King  John — a  fact  to  be  regretted. 

1766.     A  Short  Account  of  a  late  Short  Administration. 
The  summary  of  what  had  been  accomplished  by  the  Rocking- 
ham  Whigs  during  Burke's  first  year  in  Parliament. 

1769.     Observations  on  a  late  Publication  entitled  "The  Present 
State  of  the  Nation." 
Burke's  answer  to  Grenville's  pamphlet.     It  was  to  defend  the 


DESCRIPTIVE  BIBLIOGRAPHY  xxxvii 

Whig  policies  of  his  patron,  Lord  Rockingham,  that  Burke 
wrote  this  and  the  following  paper. 
1770.     Thoughts  on  the  Cause  of  the  Present  Discontents. 

1774.  Speech  on  American  Taxation. 

1775.  Speech  on  Conciliation  with  America. 
1777.     An  Address  to  the  King. 

"Each  sentence  falls  on  the  ear  with  the  accent  of  some  golden 
tongued  oracle  of  the  wise  gods"  (Lord  Morley). 

1777.     An  Address  to  the  British  Colonists  in  America. 
A  magnanimous,  though  hopeless,  expression  of  friendly  feeling 
toward  the  colonies  in  the  midst  of  their  war  for  independence. 

1777.  A  Letter  to  John  Farr  and  John  Harris,  Esquires,  Sheriffs 
of  the  City  of  Bristol,  on  the  Affairs  of  America. 

1780.  The  Speech  on  a  plan  for  the  better  Security  of  the  Inde- 
pendence of  Parliament  and  the  Economical  Reformation  of  the 
Civil  and  other  Establishments. 

1783.     The  Speech  on  Mr.  Fox's  East  India  Bill. 

Favoring  reforms  in  the  system  of  the  East  India  Company. 

1783.     Report  of  the  Committee  on  Indian  Affairs. 
An  elaborate  analysis  of  political  and  commercial  conditions  in 
India. 

1785.  The  Speech  on  charging  the  Nabob  of  Arcofs  Debts  to 
Europeans  on  the  Revenues  of  the  Carnatic. 

1786.  Articles  of  Charge  of  High  Crimes  and  Misdemeanors 
against  Warren  Hastings,  Esquire,  late  Governor-General  of 
Bengal. 

With  these  twenty-two  charges  Burke  opened  the  trial  of  War- 
ren Hastings,  which  lasted  for  fourteen  years.  These  articles, 
in  the  form  into  which  Burke  threw  them,  occupy  over  four 
hundred  large  octavo  pages. 

1788.  Speeches  on  the  Impeachment  of  Warren  Hastings,  Esquire. 
Over  five  hundred  pages  of  close  argument  and  detailed  descrip- 
tion. 

1790.     Reflections  on  the  Revolution  in  France  and  on  the  proceed- 
ings in  certain  Societies  in  London,  relative  to  that  event,  in  a 
letter  intended  to  have  been  sent  to  a  Gentleman  in  Paris. 
The  paper  in  which  Burke  commits  himself  to  the  policy  of 
opposition  to  the  republican  movements  in  France. 


xxxviii  DESCRIPTIVE  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

1791.     A  Letter  to  a  Member  of  the  National  Assembly. 
Criticising  the  methods  of  the  revolutionary  leaders. 

1791.  An  Appeal  from  the  New  to  the  Old  Whigs  in  consequence 
of  some  late  Discussions  in  Parliament  relative  to  the  Reflections 
on  the  French  Revolution. 

The  Old  Whigs  were  of  the  conservative  "Rockingham"  type. 

1792.  A  Letter  to  Sir  Hercules  Langrishe,  Bart.  M.  P.,  on  the 
Subject  of  the  Roman  Catholics  of  Ireland,  and  the  propriety  of 
admitting  them  to  the  Elective  Franchise  consistently  with  the 
principles  of  the  Constitution  as  established  at  the   Revolution 
(1688). 

An  impassioned  defence  of  the  political  rights  of  Irish  Catholics. 

1793.  Observations  on  the  Conduct  of  the  Minority,  particularly 
in  the  last  sessions  of  Parliament. 

Taking  Fox  and  Sheridan  to  task  for  their  attitude  towards 
France.  They  were  Old  Whigs  turned  New,  and  friends  of 
Burke  turned  foes. 

1793.  Remarks  on  the  Policy  of  the  Allies  with  respect  to  France. 
A  plea  for  the  restoration  of  the  old  order  in  France. 

1794.  Speeches  on  the  Impeachment  of  Warren  Hastings,  Esquire. 
The  closing  address  of  Burke  who  was  chief  advocate  for  the 
State.     These  speeches  occupied  nine  days  and  fill  six  hundred 
pages.     They   constitute   Burke's   reply   to   the   counsel   who 
sought  to  defend  the  corrupt  administration  of  affairs  in  Bengal. 

1795.  Thoughts  and  Details  on  Scarcity. 

It  was  a  time  of  famine.  This  paper  contained  a  Free  Trader's 
view  of  the  danger  of  governmental  interference  in  the  produc- 
tion or  the  marketing  of  the  necessaries  of  life.  No  one  knew 
more  accurately  or  broadly  than  Burke  what  the  actual  condi- 
tions were;  but  he  did  not  nervously  resort  to  unnatural  meas- 
ures for  relief. 

1795.     A  Letter  from  the  Right  Hon.  Edmund  Burke  to  a  Noble 
Lord,  on  the  attacks  made  upon  him  and  his  pension,  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  by  the  Duke  of  Bedford  and  the  Earl  of  Lauder- 
dale  early  in  the  present  sessions  of  Parliament. 
The  most  eloquent  of  all  Burke's  writings. 

17%.     Letter  Addressed  to  a  Member  of  the  Present  Parliament, 


DESCRIPTIVE  BIBLIOGRAPHY  xxxii 

on  the  Proposals  for  Peace  with  the  Regicide  Directory  of  France. 
Burke's  last  word  on  the  French  Revolution.  He  could  not 
endure  the  thought  of  England's  making  peace  with  the  lawless 
leaders  of  the  French  mob  which  had  guillotined  their  king  and 
queen.  To  him  the  "age  of  chivalry  was  gone,"  and  he  urged 
England  into  more  desperate  war  with  France,  with  what  was 
literally  his  dying  breath,  for  half  of  these  letters  were  pub- 
lished posthumously. 


SPEECH 


OF 


EDMUND  BURKE,  ESQ. 


ON 


Moving  his  Resolutions 


FOR 


Conciliation  with  the  Colonies 


March  22,  1775 


THE  SECOND  EDITION 


LONDON 
PRINTED  FOR  J.  DODSLEY,  IN  PALL-MALL 

MDCCLXXV 


SPEECH 

ON 

CONCILIATION   WITH   AMERICA 

/.  I  HOPE,  Sir,  that  notwithstanding  the  austerity  of 
the  Chair,  your  good  nature  will  incline  you  to  some  de- 
gree of  indulgence  towards  human  frailty.  You  will  not 
think  it  unnatural  that  those  who  have  an  object  depend- 
5  ing  which  strongly  engages  their  hopes  and  fears  should 
be  somewhat  inclined  to  superstition.  As  I  came  into 
the  House,  full  of  anxiety  about  the  event  of  my  motion, 
I  found,  to  my  infinite  surprise,  that  the  grand  penal  bill 
by  which  we  had  passed  sentence  on  the  trade  and  sus- 

10  tenance  of  America  is  to  be  returned  to  us  from  the  other 
House.  I  do  confess,  I  could  not  help  looking  on  this 
event  as  a  fortunate  omen.  I  look  upon  it  as  a  sort  of 
providential  favor  by  which  we  are  put  once  more  in  pos- 
session of  our  deliberative  capacity,  upon  a  business  so  very 

15  questionable  in  its  nature,  so  very  uncertain  in  its  issue. 
By  the  return  of  this  bill,  which  seemed  to  have  taken  its 
flight  forever,  we  are  at  this  very  instant  nearly  as  free  to 
choose  a  plan  for  our  American  government  as  we  were 
on  the  first  day  of  the  session.  If,  Sir,  we  incline  to  the 

20  side  of  conciliation,  we  are  not  at  all  embarrassed  (unless 
we  please  to  make  ourselves  so)  by  any  incongruous  mix- 
ture of  coercion  and  restraint.  We  are  therefore  called 
upon,  as  it  were  by  a  superior  warning  voice,  again  to 

i 


2  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

attend  to  America ;  to  attend  to  the  whole  of  it  together ; 
and  to  review  the  subject  with  an  unusual  degree  of  care 
and  calmness. 

2.  Surely  it  is  an  awful  subject,  or  there  is  none  so 
on  this  side  of  the  grave.     When  I  first  had  the  honor  of  5 
a  seat  in  this  House,  the  affairs  of  that  continent  pressed 
themselves  upon  us  as  the  most  important  and  most  deli- 
cate object  of  parliamentary  attention.    My  little  share  in 
this  great  deliberation  oppressed  me.     I  found  myself  a 
partaker  in  a  very  high  trust ;  and  having  no  sort  of  io 
reason  to  rely  on  the  strength  of  my  natural  abilities  for 
the  proper  execution  of  that  trust,  I  was  obliged  to  take 
more  than  common  pains  to  instruct  myself  in  everything 
which  relates  to  our  colonies.     I  was  not  less  under  the 
necessity  of  forming  some  fixed  ideas  concerning  the  gen-  15 
eral  policy  of  the  British  Empire.     Something  of  this  sort 
seemed  to  be  indispensable,  in  order,  amidst  so  vast  a 
fluctuation   of  passions   and  opinions,  to  concentre  my 
thoughts,  to  ballast  my  conduct,  to  preserve  me  from  be- 
ing blown  about  by  every  wind  of  fashionable  doctrine.  20 
I  really  did  not  think  it  safe  or  manly  to  have  fresh  prin- 
ciples to  seek  upon  every  fresh  mail  which  should  arrive 
from  America. 

3.  At  that  period  I  had  the  fortune  to  find  myself  in 
perfect  concurrence  with  a  large  majority  in  this  House.  25 
Bowing  under  that  high  authority,  and  penetrated  with 
the  sharpness  and   strength  of  that  early  impression,  I 
have  continued  ever  since,  without  the  least  deviation,  in 
my  original  sentiments.     Whether  this  be  owing  to  an 
obstinate  perseverance  in  error,  or  to  a  religious  adher-  30 
ence  to  what  appears  to  me  truth  and  reason,  it  is  in  your 
equity  to  judge. 


THE  CRISIS.  3 

4.  Sir,  Parliament  having  an  enlarged  view  of  ob- 
jects, made,  during  this  interval,  more  frequent  changes 
in  their  sentiments  and  their  conduct  than  could  be  justi- 
fied in  a  particular  person  upon  the  contracted  scale  of 

5  private  information.  But  though  I  do  not  hazard  any- 
thing approaching  to  a  censure  on  the  motives  of  former 
Parliaments  to  all  those  alterations,  one  fact  is  undoubted, 
— that  under  them  the  state  of  America  has  been  kept  in 
continual  agitation.  Everything  administered  as  remedy 

10  to  the  public  complaint,  if  it  did  not  produce,  was  at  least 
followed  by,  an  heightening  of  the  distemper ;  until  by  a 
variety  of  experiments  that  important  country  has  been 
brought  into  her  present  situation — a  situation  which  I 
will  not  miscall,  which  I  dare  not  name,  which  I  scarcely 

15  know  how  to  comprehend  in  the  terms  of  any  de- 
scription. 

5.  In  this  posture,  Sir,  things  stood  at  the  beginning 
of  the  session.     About  that  time  a  worthy  member,  of 
great  parliamentary  experience,  who  in  the  year  1766 

20  filled  the  Chair  of  the  American  Committee  with  much 
ability,  took  me  aside  and,  lamenting  the  present  aspect 
of  our  politics,  told  me  things  were  come  to  such  a  pass 
that  our  former  methods  of  proceeding  in  the  House 
would  be  no  longer  tolerated ;  that  the  public  tribunal 

25  (never  too  indulgent  to  a  long  and  unsuccessful  opposi- 
tion) would  now  scrutinize  our  conduct  with  unusual 
severity ;  that  the  very  vicissitudes  and  shiftings  of  min- 
isterial measures,  instead  of  convicting  their  authors  of 
inconstancy  and  want  of  system,  would  be  taken  as  an 

30  occasion  of  charging  us  with  a  predetermined  discontent 
which  nothing  could  satisfy,  whilst  we  accused  every 
measure  of  vigor  as  cruel,  and  every  proposal  of  lenity  as 


4  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

weak  and  irresolute.  The  public,  he  said,  would  not 
have  patience  to  see  us  play  the  game  out  with  our  ad- 
versaries ;  we  must  produce  our  hand  :  it  would  be  ex- 
pected that  those  who  for  many  years  had  been  active  in 
such  affairs  should  show  that  they  had  formed  some  clear  5 
and  decided  idea  of  the  principles  of  colony  government; 
and  were  capable  of  drawing  out  something  like  a  plat- 
form of  the  ground  which  might  be  laid  for  future  and 
permanent  tranquillity. 

6.  I  felt  the  truth  of  what  my  honorable  friend  repre-  10 
sented ;  but   I   felt   my  situation  too.     His  application 
might  have  been  made  with  far  greater  propriety  to  many 
other  gentlemen.     No  man  was  indeed  ever  better  dis- 
posed, or  worse  qualified,  for  such  an  undertaking  than 
myself.     Though  I  gave  so  far  into  his  opinion  that  I  im-  15 
mediately  threw  my  thoughts  into  a  sort  of  parliamentary 
form,  I  was  by  no  means  equally  ready  to  produce  them. 

It  generally  argues  some  degree  of  natural  impotence  of 
mind,  or  some  want  of  knowledge  of  the  world,  to  hazard 
plans  of  government,  except  from  a  seat  of  authority.  20 
Propositions  are  made,  not  only  ineffectually,  but  some- 
what disreputably,  when  the  minds  of  men  are  not  prop- 
erly disposed  for  their  reception  ;  and  for  my  part,  I  am 
not  ambitious  of  ridicule,  not  absolutely  a  candidate  for 
disgrace.  25 

7.  Besides,  Sir,  to  speak  the  plain  truth,  I  have  in 
general  no  very  exalted  opinion  of  the  virtue  of  paper 
government,  nor  of  any  politics  in  which  the  plan  is  to 
be  wholly  separated   from   the  execution.     But  when  I 
saw  that  anger  and  violence  prevailed  every  day  more  30 
and  more,  and  that  things  were   hastening  towards  an 
incurable  alienation  of  our  colonies,  I  confess  my  caution 


BURKE' S   PROPOSITION.  5 

gave  way.  I  felt  this  as  one  of  those  few  moments  in 
which  decorum  yields  to  a  higher  duty.  Public  calamity 
is  a  mighty  leveller ;  and  there  are  occasions  when  any, 
even  the  slightest,  chance  of  doing  good  must  be  laid 
hold  on,  even  by  the  most  inconsiderable  person. 

8.  To  restore  order  and  repose  to  an  empire  so  great 
and  so  distracted  as  ours,  is,  merely  in  the  attempt,  an  under- 
taking that  would  ennoble  the  flights  of  the  highest  genius 
and  obtain  pardon  for  the  efforts  of  the  meanest  under- 

10  standing.  Struggling  a  good  while  with  these  thoughts, 
by  degrees  I  felt  myself  more  firm.  I  derived,  at  length, 
some  confidence  from  what  in  other  circumstances  usually 
produces  timidity.  I  grew  less  anxious,  even  from  the 
idea  of  my  own  insignificance.  For  judging  of  what  you 

15  are  by  what  you  ought  to  be,  I  persuaded  myself  that  you 
would  not  reject  a  reasonable  proposition,  because  it  had 
nothing  but  its  reason  to  recommend  it.  On  the  other 
hand,  being  totally  destitute  of  all  shadow  of  influence, 
natural  or  adventitious,  I  was  very  sure  that  if  my 

20  proposition  were  futile  or  dangerous,  if  it  were  weakly 
conceived  or  improperly  timed,  there  was  nothing  exterior 
to  it,  of  power  to  awe,  dazzle  or  delude  you.  You 
will  see  it  just  as  it  is,  and  you  will  treat  it  just  as  it 
deserves. 

25  (g,1  The  proposition  is  peace.  Not  peace  through 
the  medium  of  war ;  not  peace  to  be  hunted  through  the 
labyrinth  of  intricate  and  endless  negotiations  ;  not  peace 
to  arise  out  of  universal  discord  fomented  from  principle 
in  all  parts  of  the  empire ;  not  peace  to  depend  on  the 

30  juridical  determination  of  perplexing  questions,  or  the 
precise  marking  the  shadowy  boundaries  of  a  complex 
government.  It  is  simple  peace,  sought  in  its  natural 


6  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

course  and  in  its  ordinary  haunts.  It  is  peace  sought  in 
the  spirit  of  peace,  and  laid  in  principles  purely  pacific. 
I  propose,  by  removing  the  ground  of  the  difference,  and 
by  restoring  the  former  unsuspecting  confidence  of  the 
colonies  in  the  mother  country,  to  give  permanent  satis-  5 
faction  to  your  people ;  and  (far  from  a  scheme  of  ruling 
by  discord)  to  reconcile  them  to  each  other  in  the  same 
act  and  by  the  bond  of  the  very  same  interest  which 
reconciles  them  to  British  government. 

IO.     My  idea  is  nothing  more.     Refined  policy  ever  ic 
has  been  the  parent  of  confusion  ;  and  ever  will  be  so,  as 
long  as  the  world  endures.     Plain  good  intention,  which 
is  as  easily  discovered  at  the  first  view  as  fraud  is  surely 
detected  at  last,  is,  let  me  say,  of  no  mean  force  in  the 
government  of  mankind.     Genuine  simplicity  of  heart  is  15 
an  healing  and  cementing  principle.     My  plan,  there- 
fore,  being    formed    upon    the    most    simple    grounds 
imaginable,  may  disappoint  some  people  when  they  hear 
it.     It  has  nothing  to  recommend  it  to  the  pruriency  of 
curious  ears.     There  is  nothing  at  all  new  and  captivat-  20 
ing  in  it.     It  has  nothing  of  the  splendor  of  the  project 
which  has  been  lately  laid  upon  your  table  by  the  noble 
lord  in  the  blue  ribbon.     It  does  not  propose  to  fill  your 
lobby  with  squabbling  .colony  agents,  who  will  require 
the  interposition  of  your  mace  at  every  instant  to  keep  2 
the  peace  amongst  them.     It  does  not  institute  a  mag- 
nificent auction  of  finance,  where  captivated  provinces 
come  to  general  ransom  by  bidding  against  each  other, 
until  you  knock  down   the  hammer,  and  determine  a 
proportion  of  payments  beyond  all  the  powers  of  algebra  30 
to  equalize  and  settle. 

//.     The    plan   which    I   shall   presume   to   suggest 


ALL  DESIRE  CONCILIATION.  7 

derives,  however,  one  great  advantage  from  the  propo- 
sition and  registry  of  that  noble  lord's  project.  The 
idea  of  conciliation  is  admissible.  First,  the  House  in 
accepting  the  resolution  moved  by  the  noble  lord  has 
5  admitted,  notwithstanding  the  menacing  front  of  our 
address,  notwithstanding  our  heavy  bill  of  pains  and 
penalties,  that  we  do  not  think  ourselves  precluded  from 
all  ideas  of  free  grace  and  bounty. 

12.     The  House  has  gone  farther :    it  has  declared 

10  conciliation  admissible,  previous  to  any  submission  on 
the  part  of  America.  It  has  even  shot  a  good  deal 
beyond  that  mark,  and  has  acjmitted  that  the  complaints 
of  our  foriner  mode  of  exerting  the  right  of  taxation  were 
not  wholly  unfounded.  That  right  thus  exerted  is 

15  allowed  to  have  something  reprehensible  in  it,  something 
unwise  or  something  grievous ;  since,  in  the  midst  of  our 
heat  and  resentment,  we  of  ourselves  have  proposed  a 
capital  alteration ;  and,  in  order  to  get  rid  of  what 
seemed  so  very  exceptionable,  have  instituted  a  mode 

20  that  is  altogether  new, — one  that  is,  indeed,  wholly 
alien  from  all  the  ancient  methods  and  forms  of  Par- 
liament. 

lj.     The  principle  of  this  proceeding  is  large  enough 
for  my  purpose.     The  means  proposed  by  the  noble  lord 

25  for  carrying  his  ideas  into  execution,  I  think,  indeed,  are 
very  indifferently  suited  to  the  end ;  and  this  I  shall 
endeavor  to  show  you  before  I  sit  down.  But,  for  the 
present,  I  take  my  ground  on  the  admitted  principle.  I 
mean  to  give  peace.  Peace  implies  reconciliation  ;  and 

30  where  there  has  been  a  material  dispute,  reconciliation 
does  in  a  manner  always  imply  concession  on  the  one 
part  or  on  the  other.  In  this  state  of  things  I  make  no 


8  ON  CONCILIATION  II' ITU  AMERICA. 

difficulty  in  affirming  that  the  proposal  ought  to  originate 
from  us.  Great  and  acknowledged  force  is  not  impaired, 
either  in  effect  or  in  opinion,  by  an  unwillingness  to 
exert  itself.  The  superior  power  may  offer  peace  with 
honor  and  with  safety.  Such  an  offer  from  such  a  power  5 
will  be  attributed  to  magnanimity.  But  the  concessions 
of  the  weak  are  the  concessions  of  fear.  When  such  a 
one  is  disarmed,  he  is  wholly  at  the  mercy  of  his  superior ; 
and  he  loses  forever  that  time  and  those  chances  which, 
as  they  happen  to  all  men,  are  the  strength  and  resources  10 
of  all  inferior  power. 

14.  The  capital  leading  questions  on  which  you  must 
this  day  decide  are  these  two :  first,  whether  you  ought 
to  concede;  and  secondly,  what  your  concession  ought 
to  be.  On  the  first  of  these  questions  we  have  gained  15 
(as  I  have  jtfst  taken  the  liberty  of  observing  to  you) 
some  ground.  But  I  am  sensible  that  a  good  deal  more 
is  still  to  be  done.  Indeed,  Sir,  to  enable  us  to  deter- 
mine both  on  the  one  and  the  other  of  these  great  ques- 
tions with  a  firm  and  precise  judgment,  I  think  it  may  be  20 
necessary  to  consider  distinctly  the  true  nature  and  the 
peculiar  circumstances  of  the  object  which  we  have  be- 
fore us :  because  after  all  our  struggle,  whether  we  will 
or  not,  we  must  govern  America  according  to  that  nature 
and  to  those  circumstances,  and  not  according  to  our  25 
own  imaginations,  not  according  to  abstract  ideas  of 
right ;  by  no  means  according  to  mere  general  theories 
of  government,  the  resort  to  which  appears  to  me  in  our 
present  situation  no  better  than  arrant  trifling.  I  shall 
therefore  endeavor,  with  your  leave,  to  lay  before  you  30 
some  of  the  most  material  of  these  circumstances  in  as 
full  and  as  clear  a  manner  as  I  am  able  to  state  them. 


THE  POPULATION  OF  AMERICA.  ,  9 

15.  The  first  thing  that  we  have  to  consider  v.-ith  re- 
gard to  the  nature  of  the  object  is  the  number  of  people 
in   the  colonies.     I  have  taken  for  some  years  a  good 
deal  of  pains  on  that  point.     I  can  by  no  calculation 
justify  myself  in  placing  the  number  below  two  millions 
of  inhabitants  of  our  own  European  blood  and  color ; 
besides  at  least  500,000  others,  who  form  no  inconsider- 
able part  of  the  strength  and  opulence  of  the  whole. 
This,  Sir,  is,  I  believe,  about  the  true  number.     There 

10  is  no  occasion  to  exaggerate  where  plain  truth  is  of  so 
much  weight  and  importance.  But  whether  I  put  the 
present  numbers  too  high  or  too  low  is  a  matter  of  little 
moment.  Such  is  the  strength  with  which  population 
shoots  in  that  part  of  the  world,  that,  state  the  numbers 

15  as  high  as  we  will,  whilst  the  dispute  continues,  the  ex- 
aggeration ends.  Whilst  we  are  discussing  any  given 
magnitude,  they  are  grown  to  it.  Whilst  we  spend  our 
time  in  deliberating  on  the  mode  of  governing  two  mil- 
lions, we  shall  find  we  have  millions  more  to  manage. 

20  Your  children  do  not  grow  faster  from  infancy  to  man- 
hood, than  they  spread  from  families  to  communities,  and 
from  villages  to  nations. 

16.  I  put  this  consideration  of  the  present  and  the 
growing  numbers  in  the  front  of  our  deliberation;  be- 
as  cause,  Sir,  this  consideration  will  make  it  evident  to  a 

blunter  discernment  than  yours,  that  no  partial,  narrow, 
contracted,  pinched,  occasional  system  will  be  at  all  suit- 
able to  such  an  object.  It  will  show  you  that  it  is  not 
to  be  considered  as  one  of  those  minima  which  are  out 
50  of  the  eye  and  consideration  of  the  law ;  not  a  paltry 
excrescence  of  the  state ;  not  a  mean  dependent,  who 
may  be  neglected  with  little  damage  and  provoked  with 


io  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

little  danger.  It  will  prove  that  some  degree  of  care  and 
caution  is  required  in  the  handling  such  an  object;  it 
will  show  that  you  ought  not,  in  reason,  to  trifle  with  so 
large  a  mass  of  the  interests  and  feelings  of  the  human 
race.  You  could  at  no  time  do  so  without  guilt ;  and  5 
be  assured  you  will  not  be  able  to  do  it  long  with  im- 
punity. 

77.  But  the  population  of  this  country,  the  great 
and  growing  population,  though  a  very  important  con- 
sideration, will  lose  much  of  its  weight,  if  not  combined  io 
with  other  circumstances.  The  commerce  of  your  colo- 
nies is  out  of  all  proportion  beyond  the  numbers  of  the 
people.  This  ground  of  their  commerce,  indeed,  has 
been  trod  some  days  ago,  and  with  great  ability,  by  a 
distinguished  person  at  your  bar.  This  gentleman,  after  15 
thirty-five  years, — it  is  so  long  since  he  first  appeared  at 
the  same  place  to  plead  for  the  commerce  of  Great 
Britain, — has  come  again  before  you  to  plead  the  same 
cause,  without  any  other  effect  of  time  than  that  to  the 
fire  of  imagination  and  extent  of  erudition,  which  even  20 
then  marked  him  as  one  of  the  first  literary  characters 
of  his  age,  he  has  added  a  consummate  knowledge  in 
the  commercial  interest  of  his  country,  formed  by  a 
long  course  of  enlightened  and  discriminating  experi- 
ence. 25 

1 8.  Sir,  I  should  be  inexcusable  in  coming  after  such 
a  person  with  any  detail,  if  a  great  part  of  the  members 
who  now  fill  the  House  had  not  the  misfortune  to  be 
absent  when  he  appeared  at  your  bar.  Besides,  Sir,  I 
propose  to  take  the  matter  at  periods  of  time  somewhat  30 
different  from  his.  There  is,  if  I  mistake  not,  a  point  of 
view  from  whence,  if  you  will  look  at  this  subject,  it  is 


THE  COMMERCE  OF  AMERICA.  \\ 

impossible  that  it  should  not  make  an  impression  upon 
you. 

19.  I  have  in  my  hand  two  accounts  :  one  a  com- 
parative state  of  the  export  trade  of  England  to  its  colo- 
5  nies,  as  it  stood  in  the  year  1704,  and  as  it  stood  in  the 
year  1772;  the  other  a  state  of  the  export  trade  of  this 
country  to  its  colonies  alone,  as  it  stood  in  1772,  com- 
pared with  the  whole  trade  of  England  to  all  parts  of  the 
world  (the  colonies  included)  in  the  year  1704.  They 

10  are  from  good  vouchers  ;  the  latter  period  from  the  ac- 
counts on  your  table,  the  earlier  from  an  original  manu- 
script of  Davenant,  who  first  established  the  Inspector- 
General's  office,  which  has  been  ever  since  his  time  so 
abundant  a  source  of  parliamentary  information. 

15  2O.  The  export  trade  to  the  colonies  consists  of  three 
great  branches  :  the  African,  which,  terminating  almost 
wholly  in  the  colonies,  must  be  put  to  the  account  of  their 
commerce  ;  the  West  Indian  ;  and  the  North  American. 
All  these  are  so  interwoven  that  the  attempt  to  separate 

20  them  would  tear  to  pieces  the  contexture  of  the  whole  ; 
and,  if  not  entirely  destroy,  would  very  much  de- 
preciate the  value  of  all  the  parts.  I  therefore  consider 
these  three  denominations  to  be,  what  in  effect  they  are, 
one  trade. 

25  21.  The  trade  to  the  colonies,  taken  on  the  export  side. 
at  the  beginning  of  this  century,  that  is,  in  the  year  1704, 
stood  thus  :  — 

Exports  to  North  America  and  the  West  Indies,  .£483,265 
To  Africa    .............       86,665 


30 

22.     In  the  year  1772,  which  I  take  as  a  middle  year 


12  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

between  the  highest  and  lowest  of  those  lately  laid  on 
your  table,  the  account  was  as  follows :  — 

To  North  America  and  the  West  Indies     .     .  .£4,791,734 

To  Africa 866,398 

To  which  if  you  add  the  export  trade  from 

Scotland,  which  had  in   1704  no  existence  364,000 


,£6,022,132 

2%.     From   five   hundred    and   odd  thousand    it  has 
grown  to  six  millions.     It  has  increased  no  less  than 
twelvefold.     This  is  the  state  of  the  colony  trade,   as  i0 
compared  with  itself  at  these  two  periods  within   this 
century;  and  this  is  matter  for  meditation.     But  this  is 
not  all.     Examine  my  second  account.     See  how  the  ex- 
port trade  to  tne  colonies  alone  in  1772  stood  in  the  other 
point  of  view,  that  is,  as  compared  to  the  whole  trade  of  1S 
England  in  1704:  — 

The  whole  export  trade  of  England,  including 

that  to  the  colonies,  in  1704 ^6,509,000 

Export  to  the  colonies  alone  in  1772     .     .     .       6,024,000 

Difference   ....       £"485,000         20 

24.  The  trade  with  America  alone  is  now  within  less 
than  ^500,000  of  being  equal  to  what  this  great  com- 
mercial nation,  England,  carried  on  at  the  beginning  of 
this  century  with  the  whole  world  !  If  I  had  taken  the 
largest  year  of  those  on  your  table,  it  would  rather  have  25 
exceeded.  But,  it  will  be  said,  is  not  this  American 
trade  an  unnatural  protuberance  that  has  drawn  the  juice§ 
from  the  rest  of  the  body  ?  The  reverse.  It  is  the  very 
food  that  has  nourished  every  other  part  into  its  present 
magnitude.  Our  general  trade  has  been  greatly  aug-  30 


RAPID  COMMERCIAL   GROWTH.  13 

mented,  and  augmented  more  or  less  in  almost  every 
part  to  which  it  ever  extended,  but  with  this  material 
difference,  that  of  the  six  millions  which  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  century  constituted  the  whole  mass  of  our 
5  export  commerce,  the  colony  trade  was  but  one-twelfth 
part ;  it  is  now  (as  a  part  of  sixteen  millions)  consider- 
ably more  than  a  third  of  the  whole.  This  is  the  relative 
proportion  of  the  importance  of  the  colonies  at  these  two 
periods  :  and  all  reasoning  concerning  our  mode  of  treat- 

10  ing  them  must  have  this  proportion  as  its  basis ;  or  it  is  a 
reasoning  weak,  rotten  and  sophistical. 

25.  Mr.  Speaker,  I  cannot  p-evail  on  myself  to  hurry 
over  this  great  consideration.  It  is  good  for  us  to  be 
here.  We  stand  where  we  have  an  immense  view  of 

15  what  is,  and  what  is  past.  Clouds,  indeed,  and  dark- 
ness rest  upon  the  future.  Let  us,  however,  before  we 
descend  from  this  noble  eminence,  reflect  that  this  growth 
of  our  national  prosperity  has  happened  within  the  short 
period  of  the  life  of  man.  It  has  happened  within  sixty- 

20  eight  years.  There  are  those  alive  whose  memory  might 
touch  the  two  extremities.  For  instance,  my  Lord 
Bathurst  might  remember  all  the  stages  of  the  progress. 
He  was  in  1 704  of  an  age  at  least  to  be  made  to  com- 
prehend such  things.  He  was  then  old  enough  acta 

25  parentum  jam  legere,  et  quae  sit  poterit  cognoscere 
virtus.  Suppose,  Sir,  that  the  angel  of  this  auspicious 
youth,  foreseeing  the  many  virtues  which  made  him  one 
of  the  most  amiable,  as  he  is  one  of  the  most  fortunate, 
men  of  his  age,  had  opened  to  him  in  vision,  that  when 

30  in  the  fourth  generation  the  third  prince  of  the  House  of 
Brunswick  had  sat  twelve  years  on  the  throne  of  that  na- 
tion which  (by  the  happy  issue  of  moderate  and  healing 


I4  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

counsels)  was  to  be  made  Great  Britain,  he  should  see  his 
son,  Lord  Chancellor  of  England,  turn  back  the  current 
of  hereditary  dignity  to  its  fountain,  and  raise  him  to  a 
higher  rank  of  peerage,  whilst  he  enriched  the  family 
with  a  new  one  ; — if  amidst  these  bright  and  happy  5 
scenes  of  domestic  honor  and  prosperity  that  angel  should 
have  drawn  up  the  curtain  and  unfolded  the  rising  glories 
of  his  country,  and,  whilst  he  was  gazing  with  admira- 
tion on  the  then  commercial  grandeur  of  England,  the 
genius  should  point  out  to  him  a  little  speck,  scarcely  10 
visible  in  the  mass  of  the  national  interest,  a  small 
seminal  principle  rather  than  a  formed  body,  and  should 
tell  him, — "  Young  man,  there  is  America,  which  at  this 
day  serves  for  little  more  than  to  amuse  you  with  stories 
of  savage  men  and  uncouth  manners;  yet  shall,  before  15 
you  taste  of  death,  show  itself  equal  to  the  whole  of  that 
commerce  which  now  attracts  the  envy  of  the  world. 
Whatever  England  has  been  growing  to  by  a  progressive 
increase  of  improvement,  brought  in  by  varieties  of  peo- 
ple, by  succession  of  civilizing  conquests  and  civilizing  20 
settlements  in  a  series  of  seventeen  hundred  years,  you 
shall  see  as  much  added  to  her  by  America  in  the  course 
of  a  single  life !  "  If  this  state  of  his  country  had  been 
foretold  to  him,  would  it  not  require  all  the  sanguine 
credulity  of  youth  and  all  the  fervid  glow  of  enthusiasm  25 
to  make  him  believe  it?  Fortunate  man,  he  has  lived  to 
see  it !  Fortunate  indeed,  if  he  lives  to  see  nothing  that 
shall  vary  the  prospect  and  cloud  the  setting  of  his  day  ! 
26.  Excuse  me,  Sir,  if,  turning  from  such  thoughts,  I 
resume  this  comparative  view  once  more.  You  have  seen  30 
it  on  a  large  scale  ;  look  at  it  on  a  small  one.  I  will  point 
out  to  your  attention  a  particular  instance  of  it  in  the 


AMERICAN  A  GRICUL  TURE.  15 

single  province  of  Pennsylvania.  In  the  year  1704  that 
province  called  for  ;£i  1,459  ^n  value  of  your  commodi- 
ties, native  and  foreign.  This  was  the  whole.  What  did 
it  demand  in  1772?  Why,  nearly  fifty  times  as  much; 
5  for  in  that  year  the  export  to  Pennsylvania  was  ^507,909, 
nearly  equal  to  the  export  to  all  the  colonies  together  in 
the  first  period. 

27.  I  choose,  Sir,  to  enter  into  these  minute  and 
particular   details;    because   generalities,    which  in  all 

10  other  cases  are  apt  to  heighten  and  raise  the  subject,  have 
here  a  tendency  to  sink  it.  When  we  speak  of  the  com- 
merce with  our  colonies,  fiction  lags  after  truth,  invention 
is  unfruitful,  and  imagination  cold  and  barren. 

28.  So  far,  Sir,  as  to  the  importance  of  the  object  in 
15  the  view  of  its  commerce,  as  concerned  in  the  exports 

from  England.  If  I  were  to  detail  the  imports,  I  could 
show  how  many  enjoyments  they  procure  which  deceive 
the  burthen  of  life,  how  many  materials  which  invigorate 
the  springs  of  national  industry,  and  extend  and  animate 
20  every  part  of  our  foreign  and  domestic  commerce.  This 
would  be  a  curious  subject  indeed, — but  I  must  prescribe 
bounds  to  myself  in  a  matter  so  vast  and  various. 

29.  I  pass,  therefore,  to  the  colonies  in  another  point 
of  view, — their  agriculture.     This  they  have  prosecuted 

25  with  such  a  spirit  that,  besides  feeding  plentifully  their 
own  growing  multitude,  their  annual  export  of  grain, 
comprehending  rice,  has  some  years  ago  exceeded  a 
million  in  value.  Of  their  last  harvest,  I  am  persuaded, 
they  will  export  much  more.  At  the  beginning  of  the 

30  century  some  of  these  colonies  imported  corn  from  the 
mother  country.  For  some  time  past  the  Old  World  has 
been  fed  from  the  New.  The  scarcity  which  you  have 


1 6  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

felt  would  have  been  a  desolating  famine,  if  this  child 
of  your  old  age,  with  a  true  filial  piety,  with  a  Roman 
charity,  had  not  put  the  full  breast  of  its  youthful  exu- 
berance to  the  mouth  of  its  exhausted  parent. 

JO.     As  to  the  wealth  which  the  colonies  have  drawn  5 
from  the  sea  by  their  fisheries,  you  had  all  that  matter 
fully   opened   at   your   bar.     You  surely  thought  those 
acquisitions  of  value,  for  they  seemed  even  to  excite  your 
envy ;  and  yet  the  spirit  by  which  that  enterprising  em- 
ployment has  been  exercised  ought  rather,  in  my  opinion,  10 
to  have  raised  your  esteem  and  admiration.     And  pray, 
Sir,  what  in  the  world  is  equal  to  it?     Pass  by  the  other 
par,ts,  and  look  at  the  manner  in  which  the  people  of 
New  England  have  of  late  carried  on  the  whale  fishery. 
Whilst  we  follow  them  among  the  tumbling  mountains  15 
of  ice,   and  behold  them  penetrating  into  the   deepest 
frozen  recesses  of  Hudson  Bay  and  Davis  Strait,  whilst 
we  are  looking  for  them  beneath  the  Arctic  Circle,  we 
hear  that  they  have  pierced  into  the  opposite  region  of 
polar  cold,  that  they  are  at  the  antipodes  and  engaged  20 
under  the  frozen  Serpent  of  the  south.     Falkland  Island, 
which  seemed  too  remote  and  romantic  an  object  for  the 
grasp  of  national  ambition,  is  but  a  stage  and  resting- 
place  in  the  progress  of  their  victorious  industry.     Nor 
is  the   equinoctial  heat  more  discouraging  to  them  than  25 
the  accumulated  winter  of  both   the  poles.     We  know 
that  whilst   some  of  them  draw  the  line  and  strike  the 
harpoon  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  others  run  the  longitude 
and  pursue  their  gigantic  game  along  the  coast  of  Brazil. 
No  sea  but  what  is  vexed  by  their  fisheries.     No  climate  30 
that  is  not  witness  to  their  toils.     Neither  the  persever- 
ance  of   Holland    nor   the   activity  of  France  nor  the 


AlfERICAN  FISHERIES.  >  17 

dexterous  and  firm  sagacity  of  English  enterprise  ever 
carried  this  most  perilous  mode  of  hardy  industry  to  the 
extent  to  which  it  has  been  pushed  by  this  recent  people 
— a  people  who  are  still,  as  it  were,  but  in  the  gristle, 
5  and  not  yet  hardened  into  the  bone  of  manhood.  When 
I  contemplate  these  things ;  when  I  know  that  the 
colonies  in  general  owe  little  or  nothing  to  any  care  of 
ours,  and  that  they  are  not  squeezed  into  this  happy  form 
by  the  constraints  of  watchful  and  suspicious  govern - 

10  ment,  but  that  through  a  wise  and  salutary  neglect  a 
generous  nature  has  been  suffered  to  take  her  own  way  to 
perfection  ; — when  I  reflect  upon  these  effects,  when  I 
see  how  profitable  they  have  been  to  us,  I  feel  all  the  pride 
of  power  sink,  and  all  presumption  in  the  wisdom  of 

15  human  contrivances  melt  and  die  away  within  me.  My 
rigor  relents.  I  pardon  something  to  the  spirit  of 
liberty. 

^/.     I  am  sensible,  Sir,  that  all  which  I  have  asserted 
in  my  detail  is  admitted  in  the  gross,  but  that  quite  a 

20  different  conclusion  is  drawn  from  it.  America,  gentle- 
men say,  is  a  noble  object ;  it  is  an  object  well  worth 
fighting  for.  Certainly  it  is,  if  fighting  a  people  be  the 
best  way  of  gaining  them.  Gentlemen  in  this  respect 
will  be  led  to  their  choice  of  means  by  their  complexions 

25  and  their  habits.  Those  who  understand  the  military 
art  will  of  course  have  some  predilection  for  it.  Those 
who  wield  the  thunder  of  the  state  may  have  more  con- 
fidence in  the  efficacy  of  arms.  But  I  confess,  possibly 
for  want  of  this  knowledge,  my  opinion  is  much  more  in 

30  favor  of  prudent  management  than  of  force, — consider- 
ing force  not  as  an  odious,  but  a  feeble,  instrument  for 
preserving  a  people  so  numerous,  so  active,  so  growing, 


18  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

so  spirited  as  this,  in  a  profitable  and  subordinate  con- 
nection with  us. 

^2.     First,  Sir,  permit  me  to  observe  that  the  use  of 
force  alone  is  but  temporary.     It  may  subdue  for  a  mo- 
ment, but  it  does  not  remove  the  necessity  of  subduing  5 
again  ;  and  a  nation  is  not  governed  which  is  perpetually 
to  be  conquered. 

33.  My  next  objection  is  its  uncertainty.  Terror  is 
not  always  the  effect  of  force ;  and  an  armament  is  not  a 
victory.  If  you  do  not  succeed,  you  are  without  re-  10 
source :  for  conciliation  failing,  force  remains ;  but  force 
failing,  no  further  hope  of  reconciliation  is  left.  Power 
and  authority  are  sometimes  bought  by  kindness;  but 
they  can  never  be  begged  as  alms  by  an  impoverished 
and  defeated  violence.  15 

^4.  A  further  objection  to  force  is  that  you  impair  the 
object  by  your  very  endeavors  to  preserve  it.  The  thing 
you  fought  for  is  not  the  thing  which  you  recover ;  but 
depreciated,  sunk,  wasted  and  consumed  in  the  contest. 
Nothing  less  will  content  me  than  whole  America.  I  do  20 
not  choose  to  consume  its  strength  along  with  our  own; 
because  in  all  parts  it  is  the  British  strength  that  I  con- 
sume. I  do  not  choose  to  be  caught  by  a  foreign  enemy 
at  the  end  of  this  exhausting  conflict ;  and  still  less  in 
the  midst  of  it.  I  may  escape ;  but  I  can  make  no  in-  25 
surance  against  such  an  event.  Let  me  add  that  I  do 
not  choose  wholly  to  break  the  American  spirit ;  because 
it  is  the  spirit  that  has  made  the  country. 

35.     Lastly,  we  have  no  sort  of  experience  in  favor  of 
force  as  an  instrument  in  the  rule  of  our  colonies.     Their  30 
growth  and  their  utility  have  been  owing  to  methods  al- 
together different.    Our  ancient  indulgsnce  has  been  said 


COLONIAL  LOVE  OF  LIBERTY.  19 

to  be  pursued  to  a  fault.  It  may  be  so ;  but  we  know,  if 
feeling  is  evidence,  that  our  fault  was  more  tolerable  than 
our  attempt  to  mend  it,  and  our  sin  far  more  salutary 
than  our  penitence. 

5  36.  These,  Sir,  are  my  reasons  for  not  entertaining 
that  high  opinion  of  untried  force,  by  which  many  gen- 
tlemen, for  whose  sentiments  in  other  particulars  I  have 
great  respect,  seem  to  be  so  greatly  captivated.  But 
there  is  still  behind  a  third  consideration  concerning  this 

10  object,  which  serves  to  determine  my  opinion  on  the  sort 
of  policy  which  ought  to  be  pursued  in  the  management 
of  America,  even  more  than  its  population  and  its  com- 
merce :   I  mean  its  temper  and  character. 
3J.     In  this  character  of  the  Americans  a  love  of 

15  freedom  is  the  predominating  feature  which  marks  and 
distinguishes  the  whole :  and  as  an  ardent  is  always  a 
jealous  affection,  your  colonies  become  suspicious,  restive 
and  untractable,  whenever  they  see  the  least  attempt  to 
wrest  from  them  by  force  or  shuffle  from  them  by  chicane 

20  what  they  think  the  only  advantage  worth  living  for. 
This  fierce  spirit  of  liberty  is  stronger  in  the  English 
colonies  probably  than  in  any  other  people  of  the  earth ; 
and  this  from  a  great  variety  of  powerful  causes,  which, 
to  understand  the  true  temper  of  their  minds  and  the 

25  direction  which  this  spirit  takes,  it  will  not  be  amiss  to 
lay  open  somewhat  more  largely. 

38.  First,  the  people  of  the  colonies  are  descendants 
of  Englishmen.  England,  Sir,  is  a  nation  which  still,  I 
hope,  respects,  and  formerly  adored,  her  freedom.  The 

30  colonists  emigrated  from  you  when  this  part  of  your  char- 
acter was  most  predominant ;  and  they  took  this  bias  and 
direction  the  moment  they  parted  from  your  hands. 


20  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

They  are  therefore  not  only  devoted  to  liberty,  but  to 
liberty  according  to  English  ideas  and  on  English  prin- 
ciples. Abstract  liberty,  like  other  mere  abstractions,  is 
not  to  be  found.  Liberty  inheres  in  some  sensible  ob- 
ject ;  and  every  nation  has  formed  to  itself  some  favorite  5 
point,  which  by  way  of  eminence  becomes  the  criterion 
of  their  happiness.  It  happened,  you  know,  Sir,  that  the 
great  contests  for  freedom  in  this  country  were  from  the 
earliest  times  chiefly  upon  the  question  of  taxing.  Most 
of  the  contests  in  the  ancient  commonwealths  turned  ic 
primarily  on  the  right  of  election  of  magistrates  or  on  the 
balance  among  the  several  orders  of  the  state.  The 
question  of  money  was  not  with  them  so  immediate.  But 
in  England  it  was  otherwise.  On  this  point  of  taxes  the 
ablest  pens  and  most  eloquent  tongues  have  been  exer-  15 
cised,  the  greatest  spirits  have  acted*  and  suffered.  In 
order  to  give  the  fullest  satisfaction  concerning  the  im- 
portance of  this  point,  it  was  not  only  necessary  for  those 
who  in  argument  defended  the  excellence  of  the  English' 
Constitution  to  insist  on  this  privilege  of  granting  money  20 
as  a  dry  point  of  fact,  and  to  prove  that  the  right  had 
been  acknowledged  in  ancient  parchments  and  blind 
usages  to  reside  in  a  certain  body  called  a  House  of  Com- 
mons. They  went  much  further  :  they  attempted  to 
prove,  and  they  succeeded,  that  in  theory  it  ought  to  be  25 
so,  from  the  particular  nature  of  the  House  of  Commons 
as  an  immediate  representative  of  the  people,  whether  the 
old  records  had  delivered  this  oracle  or  not.  They  took 
infinite  pains  to  inculcate  as  a  fundamental  principle,  that 
in  all  monarchies  the  people  must  in  effect  themselves,  30 
mediately  or  immediately,  possess  the  power  of  granting 
their  own  money,  or  no  shadow  of  liberty  could  subsist. 


SELF-TAXATION  THE  ENGLISH  TEST.  21 

The  colonies  draw  from  you,  as  with  their  life-blood, 
these  ideas  and  principles.  Their  love  of  liberty,  as  with 
you,  fixed  and  attached  on  this  specific  point  of  taxing. 
Liberty  might  be  safe  or  might  be  endangered  in  twenty 
5  other  particulars  without  their  being  much  pleased  or 
alarmed.  Here  they  felt  its  pulse ;  and  as  they  found 
that  beat,  they  thought  themselves  sick  or  sound.  I  do 
not  say  whether  they  were  right  or  wrong  in  applying 
your  general  arguments  to  their  own  case.  It  is  not 

10  easy,  indeed,  to  make  a  monopoly  of  theorems  and  corol- 
laries. The  fact  is  that  they  did  thus  apply  those  general 
arguments ;  and  your  mode  of  governing  them,  whether 
through  lenity  or  indolence,  through  wisdom  or  mistake, 
confirmed  them  in  the  imagination  that  they,  as  well  as 

15  you,  had  an  interest  in  these  common  principles. 

39.  They  were  further  confirmed  in  this  pleasing 
error  by  the  form  of  their  provincial  legislative  assem- 
blies. Their  governments  are  popular  in  an  high  degree : 
some  are  merely  popular ;  in  all  the  popular  representa- 

20  tive  is  the  most  weighty ;  and  this  share  of  the  people  in 
their  ordinary  government  never  fails  to  inspire  them 
with  lofty  sentiments  and  with  a  strong  aversion  from 
whatever  tends  to  deprive  them  of  their  chief  impor- 
tance. 

25  40.  If  anything  were  wanting  to  this  necessary 
operation  of  the  form  of  government,  religion  would 
have  given  it  a  complete  effect.  Religion,  always  a 
principle  of  energy,  in  this  new  people  is  no  way  worn 
out  or  impaired  ;  and  their  mode  of  professing  it  is  also 

30  one  main  cause  of  this  free  spirit.  The  people  are 
Protestants,  and  of  that  kind  which  is  the  most  adverse 
to  all  implicit  submission  of  mind  and  opinion.  This  is 


23  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

a  persuasion  not  only  favorable  to  liberty,  but  built  upon 
it.  I  do  not  think,  Sir,  that  the  reason  of  this  averse- 
ness  in  the  dissenting  churches  from  all  that  looks  like 
absolute  government  is  so  much  to  be  sought  in  their  re- 
ligious tenets  as  in  their  history.  Every  one  knows  that  5 
the  Roman  Catholic  religion  is  at  least  coeval  with  most 
of  the  governments  where  it  prevails ;  that  it  has  gen- 
erally gone  hand  in  hand  with  them,  and  received  great 
favor  and  every  kind  of  support  from  authority.  The 
Church  of  England  too  was  formed  from  her  cradle  10 
under  the  nursing  care  of  regular  government.  But  the 
dissenting  interests  have  sprung  up  in  direct  opposition 
to  all  the  ordinary  powers  of  the  world,  and  could  justify 
that  opposition  only  on  a  strong  claim  to  natural  liberty. 
Their  very  existence  depended  on  the  powerful  and  un-  15 
remitted  assertion  of  that  claim.  All  Protestantism,  even 
the  most  cold  and  passive,  is  a  sort  of  dissent.  But  the 
religion  most  prevalent  in  our  northern  colonies  is  a  re- 
finement on  the  principle  of  resistance :  it  is  the  dis- 
sidence  of  dissent  and  the  Protestantism  of  the  Protestant  20 
religion.  This  religion,  under  a  variety  of  denomina- 
tions agreeing  in  nothing  but  in  the  communion  of  the 
spirit  of  liberty,  is  predominant  in  most  of  the  northern 
provinces,  where  the  Church  of  England,  notwithstand- 
ing its  legal  rights,  is  in  reality  no  more  than  a  sort  of  25 
private  sect,  not  composing  most  probably  the  tenth  of 
the  people.  The  colonists  left  England  when  this  spirit 
was  high,  and  in  the  emigrants  was  the  highest  of  all ; 
and  even  that  stream  of  foreigners  which  has  been  con- 
stantly flowing  into  these  colonies  has,  for  the  greatest  30 
part,  been  composed  of  dissenters  from  the  establishments 
of  their  several  countries,  and  have  brought  with  them  a 


EFFECT  OF  SLAVE-HOLDING.  23 

temper  and  character  far  from  alien  to  that  of  the  people 
with  whom  they  mixed. 

47.     Sir,  I  can  perceive  by  their  manner  that  some 
gentlemen  object  to  the  latitude  of  this  description,  be- 

5  cause  in  the  southern  colonies  the  Church  of  England 
forms  a  large  body  and  has  a  regular  establishment.  It 
is  certainly  true.  There  is,  however,  a  circumstance  at- 
tending these  colonies,  which,  in  my  opinion,  fully 
counterbalances  this  difference  and  makes  the  spirit  of 

10  liberty  still  more  high  and  haughty  than  in  those  to  the 
northward.  It  is,  that  in  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas 
they  have  a  vast  multitude  of  slaves.  Where  this  is  the 
case  in  any  part  of  the  world,  those  who  are  free  are  by 
far  the  most  proud  and  jealous  of  their  freedom.  Free- 

15  dom  is  to  them  not  only  an  enjoyment,  but  a  kind  of 
rank  and  privilege.  Not  seeing  there  that  freedom,  as  in 
countries  where  it  is  a  common  blessing  and  as  broad 
and  general  as  the  air,  may  be  united  with  much  abject 
toil,  with  great  misery,  with  all  the  exterior  of  servitude, 

20  liberty  looks,  amongst  them,  like  something  that  is  more 
noble  and  liberal.  I  do  not  mean,  Sir,  to  commend  the 
superior  morality  of  this  sentiment,  which  has  at  least  as 
much  pride  as  virtue  in  it ;  but  I  cannot  alter  the  nature 
of  man.  The  fact  is  so  ;  and  these  people  of  the  south- 

25  ern  colonies  are  much  more  strongly  and  with  a  higher 
and  more  stubborn  spirit  attached  to  liberty  than  those 
to  the  northward.  Such  were  all  the  ancient  common- 
wealths ;  such  were  our  Gothic  ancestors ;  such  in  our 
days  were  the  Poles ;  and  such  will  be  all  masters  of 

30  slaves,  who  are  not  slaves  themselves.  In  such  a  people 
the  haughtiness  of  domination  combines  with  the  spirit 
of  freedom,  fortifies  it,  and  renders  it  invincible. 


24  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

^2.  Permit  me,  Sir,  to  add  another  circumstance  in 
our  colonies,  which  contributes  no  mean  part  towards 
the  growth  and  effect  of  this  untractable  spirit :  I  mean 
their  education.  In  no  country  perhaps  in  the  world  is 
the  law  so  general  a  study.  The  profession  itself  is  5 
numerous  and  powerful,  and  in  most  provinces  it  takes 
.  the  lead.  The  greater  number  of  the  deputies  sent  to 
the  Congress  were  lawyers.  But  all  who  read  (and  most 
do  read)  endeavor  to  obtain  some  smattering  in  that 
science.  I  have  been  told  by  an  eminent  bookseller  that  10 
in  no  branch  of  his  business,  after  tracts  of  popular 
devotion,  were  so  many  books  as  those  on  the  law  ex- 
ported to  the  plantations.  The  colonists  have  now  fallen 
into  the  way  of  printing  them  for  their  own  use.  I  hear 
that  they  have  sold  nearly  as  many  of  Blackstone's  Com-  15 
mentaries  in  America  as  in  England.  General  Gage 
marks  out  this  disposition  very  particularly  in  a  letter  on 
your  table.  He  states  that  all  the  people  in  his  govern- 
ment are  lawyers  or  smatterers  in  law ;  and  that  in  Bos- 
ton they  have  been  enabled  by  successful  chicane  wholly  20 
to  evade  many  parts  of  one  of  your  capital  penal  con- 
stitutions. The  smartness  of  debate  will  say  that  this 
knowledge  ought  to  teach  them  more  clearly  the  rights 
of  legislature,  their  obligations  to  obedience  and  the 
penalties  of  rebellion.  All  this  is  mighty  well.  But  my  25 
honorable  and  learned  friend  on  the  floor,  who  con- 
descends to  mark  what  I  say  for  animadversion,  will  dis- 
dain that  ground.  He  has  heard,  as  well  as  I,  that  when 
great  honors  and  great  emoluments  do  not  win  over  this 
knowledge  to  the  service  of  the  state,  it  is  a  formidable  30 
adversary  to  government.  If  the  spirit  be  not  tamed  and 
broken  by  these  happy  methods,  it  is  stubborn  and 


REMOTENESS  FROM  ENGLAND.  25 

litigious.  Abeunt  studia  in  mores.  This  study  renders 
men  acute,  inquisitive,  dexterous,  prompt  in  attack,  ready 
in  defence,  full  of  resources.  In  other  countries  the 
people,  more  simple  and  of  a  less  mercurial  cast,  judge  of 
5  an  ill  principle  in  government  only  by  an  actual  griev- 
ance ;  here  they  anticipate  the  evil  and  judge  of  the 
pressure  of  the  grievance  by  the  badness  of  the  principle. 
They  augur  misgovernment  at  a  distance  and  snuff  the 
approach  of  tyranny  in  every  tainted  breeze. 

10  43.  The  last  cause  of  this  disobedient  spirit  in  the 
colonies  is  hardly  less  powerful  than  the  rest,  as  it  is  not 
merely  moral,  but  laid  deep  in  the  natural  constitution 
of  things.  Three  thousand  miles  of  ocean  lie  between 
you  and  them.  No  contrivance  can  prevent  the  effect  of 

15  this  distance  in  weakening  government.  Seas  roll  and 
months  pass  between  the  order  and  the  execution  ;  and 
the  want  of  a  speedy  explanation  of  a  single  point  is 
enough  to  defeat  a  whole  system.  You  have,  indeed, 
winged  ministers  of  vengeance,  who  carry  your  bolts  in 

20  their   pounces   to   the   remotest  verge  of  the  sea.     But 

.  there    a    power    steps    in  that  limits  the  arrogance  of 

"raging  passions  and  furious  elements,  and  says,  ''So  far 

shall  thou  go,  and  no  farther."     Who  are  you,  that  you 

should  fret  and  rage,  and  bite  the  chains  of  Nature  ?J( 

25  Nothing  worse  happens  to  you  than  does  to  all  nations  who 
have  extensive  empire ;  and  it  happens  in  all  the  forms 
into  which  empire  can  be  thrown.  In  large  bodies  the 
circulation  of  power  must  be  less  vigorous  at  the  ex- 
tremities. Nature  has  said  it.  The  Turk  cannot  govern 

30  Egypt  and  Arabia  and  Kurdistan  as  he  governs  Thrace ; 
nor  has  he  the  same  dominion  in  Crimea  and  Algiers 
which  he  has  at  Brusa  and  Smyrna.  Despotism  itself  is 


26  UN  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

obliged  to  truck  and  huckster.  The  sultan  gets  such 
obedience  as  he  can.  He  governs  with  a  loose  rein,  that 
he  may  govern  at  all ;  and  the  whole  of  the  force  and 
vigor  of  his  authority  in  his  centre  is  derived  from  a 
prudent  relaxation  in  all  his  borders.  Spain,  in  her  5 
provinces,  is  perhaps  not  so  well  obeyed  as  you  are  in 
yours.  She  complies  too ;  she  submits ;  she  watches 
times.  This  is  the  immutable  condition,  the  eternal  law, 
of  extensive  and  detached  empire. 

44.  Then,  Sir,  from  these  six  capital  sources :  of  de-  10 
scent,  of  form  of  government,  of  religion  in  the  northern 
provinces,  of  manners  in  the  southern,  of  education,  of 
the  remoteness  of  situation  from  the  first  mover  of  govern- 
ment,— from  all  these  causes  a  fierce  spirit  of  liberty  has 
grown  up.     It  has  grown  with  the  growth  of  the  people  15 
in  your  colonies,  and  increased  with  the  increase  of  their 
wealth  :  a  spirit,  that  unhappily  meeting  with  an  exercise 
of   power   in   England,   which,   however  lawful,    is  not 
reconcilable   to   any   ideas   of  liberty,  much   less   with 
theirs,  has  kindled  this  flame  that  is  ready  to  consume  20 
us. 

45.  I  do  not  mean  to  commend  either  the  spirit  in  this 
excess  or  the  moral  causes  which  produce  it.     Perhaps  a 
more  smooth  and  accommodating  spirit  of  freedom  in 
them  would  be  more  acceptable  to  us.     Perhaps  ideas  of  25 
liberty   might    be    desired   more   reconcilable   with   an 
arbitrary  and  boundless  authority.      Perhaps  we  might 
wish  the  colonists  to  be  persuaded  that  their  liberty  is 
more  secure  when  held  in  trust  for  them  by  us,  as  their 
guardians  during  a  perpetual  minority,   than  with  any  30 
part   of  it  in   their  own   hands.     The  question   is  not 
whether  their  spirit  deserves  praise  or  blame,  but  what,  in 


WHAT  SHALL  BE  DONE?  27 

the  name  of  God,  shall  we  do  with  it  ?  You  have  be- 
fore you  the  object,  such  as  it  is,  with  all  its  glories,  with 
all  its  imperfections  on  its  head.  You  see  the  magni- 
tude, the  importance,  the  temper,  the  habits,  the  dis- 
5  orders.  By  all  these  considerations  we  are  strongly 
urged  to  determine  something  concerning  it.  "We  are 
called  upon  to  fix  some  rule  and  line  for  our  future  con- 
duct, which  may  give  a  little  stability  to  our  politics  and 
prevent  the  return  of  such  unhappy  deliberations  as  the 

10  present.  Every  such  return  will  bring  the  matter  before 
us  in  a  still  more  untractable  form.  For  what  astonish- 
ing and  incredible  things  have  we  not  seen  already ! 
What  monsters  have  not  been  generated  from  this  unnat- 
ural contention  !  Whilst  every  principle  of  authority  and 

15  resistance  has  been  pushed,  upon  both  sides,  as  far  as  it 
would  go,  there  is  nothing  so  solid  and  certain,  either  in 
reasoning  or  in  practice,  that  has  not  been  shaken.  Until 
very  lately  all  authority  in  America  seemed  to  be  rothing 
but  an  emanation  from  yours.  Even  the  popular  part  of 

20  the  colony  constitution  derived  all  its  activity,  and  its  first 
vital  movement,  from  the  pleasure  of  the  crown.  We 
thought,  Sir,  that  the  utmost  which  the  discontented 
colonists  could  do  was  to  disturb  authority;  we  never 
dreamt  they  could  of  themselves  supply  it,  knowing  in 

25  general  what  an  operose  business  it  is  to  establish  a  gov- 
ernment absolutely  new.  But  having  for  our  purposes  in 
this  contention  resolved  that  none  but  an  obedient  as- 
sembly should  sit,  the  humors  of  the  people  there,  finding 
all  passage  through  the  legal  channel  stopped,  with  great 

30  violence  broke  out  another  way.  Some  provinces  have 
tried  their  experiment,  as  we  have  tried  ours  ;  and  theirs 
has  succeeded.  They  have  formed  a  government  sum- 


38  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

cient  fur  its  purposes,  without  the  bustle  of  a  revolution 
or  the  troublesome  formality  of  an  election.  Evident 
necessity  and  tacit  consent  have  done  the  business  in  an 
instant.  So  well  they  have  done  it,  that  Lord  Dunmore 
(the  account  is  among  the  fragments  on  your  table)  tells  5 
you  that  the  new  institution  is  infinitely  better  obeyed 
than  the  ancient  government  ever  was  in  its  most  fortu- 
nate periods.  Obedience  is  what  makes  government,  and 
not  the  names  by  which  it  is  called :  not  the  name  of 
governor,  as  formerly;  or  committee,  as  at  present.  This  ic 
new  government  has  originated  directly  from  the  people, 
and  was  not  transmitted  through  any  of  the  ordinary 
artificial  media  of  a  positive  constitution.  It  was  not  a 
manufacture  ready  formed,  and  transmitted  to  them  in 
that  condition  from  England.  The  evil  arising  from  15 
hence  is  this  :  that  the  colonists  having  once  found  the 
possibility  of  enjoying  the  advantages  of  order  in  the 
midst  of  a  struggle  for  liberty,  such  struggles  will  not 
henceforward  seem  so  terrible  to  the  settled  and  sober 
part  of  mankind,  as  they  had  appeared  before  the  trial.  20 

46.  Pursuing  the  same  plan  of  punishing  by  the 
denial  of  the  exercise  of  government  to  still  greater 
lengths,  we  wholly  abrogated  the  ancient  government  of 
Massachusetts.  We  were  confident  that  the  first  feeling, 
if  not  the  very  prospect  of  anarchy,  would  instantly  en-  25 
force  a  complete  submission.  The  experiment  was  tried. 
A  new,  strange,  unexpected  face  of  things  appeared. 
Anarchy  is  found  tolerable.  A  vast  province  has  now 
subsisted,  and  subsisted  in  a  considerable  degree  of 
health  and  vigor,  for  near  a  twelvemonth,  without  30 
governor,  without  public  council,  without  judges,  without 
executive  magistrates.  How  long  it  will  continue  in  this 


EXPERIMENTS  IMPERIL  ENGLAND.  29 

state,  or  what  may  arise  out  of  this  unheard-of  situation, 
how  can  the  wisest  of  us  conjecture  ?  Our  late  experi- 
ence has  taught  us  that  many  of  those  fundamental 
principles  formerly  believed  infallible  are  either  not  of  the 

5  importance  they  were  imagined  to  be,  or  that  we  have 
not  at  all  adverted  to  some  other  far  more  important  and 
far  more  powerful  principles,  which  entirely  overrule 
those  we  had  considered  as  omnipotent.  I  am  much 
against  any  further  experiments  which  tend  to  put  to  the 

10  proof  any  more  of  these  allowed  opinions  which  con- 
tribute so  much  to  the  public  tranquillity.  In  effect,  we 
suffer  as  much  at  home  by  this  loosening  of  all  ties  and 
this  concussion  of  all  established  opinions,  as  we  do 
abroad.  For,  in  order  to  prove  that  the  Americans  have 

15  no  right  to  their  liberties,  we  are  every  day  endeavoring 
to  subvert  the  maxims  which  preserve  the  whole  spirit  of 
our  own.  To  prove  that  Americans  ought  not  to  be  free, 
we  are  obliged  to  depreciate  the  value  of  freedom  itself; 
and  we  never  seem  to  gain  a  paltry  advantage  over  them 

20  in  debate,  without  attacking  some  of  those  principles,  or 
deriding  some  of  those  feelings,  for  which  our  ancestors 
have  shed  their  blood. 

47.     But,  Sir,  in  wishing  to  put  an  end  to  pernicious 
experiments,    I    do   not   mean    to   preclude   the   fullest 

25  inquiry.  Far  from  it.  Far  from  deciding  on  a  sudden 
or  partial  view,  I  would  patiently  go  round  and  round 
the  subject,  and  survey  it  minutely  in  every  possible 
aspect.  Sir,  if  I  were  capable  of  engaging  you  to  an 
equal  attention,  I  would  state  that,  as  far  as  I  am  capable 

30  of  discerning,  there  are  but  three  ways  of  proceeding 
relative  to  this  stubborn  spirit  which  prevails  in  your 
colonies  and  disturbs  your  government.  These  are :  to 


30  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

change  that  spirit  as  inconvenient,  by  removing  the 
causes  ;  to  prosecute  it  as  criminal ;  or  to  comply  with  it 
as  necessary.  I  would  not  be  guilty  of  an  imperfect 
enumeration ;  I  can  think  of  but  these  three.  Another 
has  indeed  been  started,  that  of  giving  up  the  colonies ;  5 
but  it  met  so  slight  a  reception  that  I  do  not  think 
myself  obliged  to  dwell  a  great  while  upon  it.  It  is 
nothing  but  a  little  sally  of  anger,  like  the  frowardness 
of  peevish  children,  who,  when  they  cannot  get  all  they 
would  have,  are  resolved  to  take  nothing.  10 

48.  The  first  of  these  plans,  to  change  the  spirit  as 
inconvenient,  by  removing   the   causes,  I   think   is  the 
most  like  a  systematic  proceeding.     It  is  radical  in  its 
principle;  but  it  is  attended  with  great  difficulties,  some 
of  them   little  short,  as  I  conceive,  of  impossibilities.  15 
This  will  appear  by  examining  into  the  plans  which  have 
been  proposed. 

49.  As   the  growing   population  in  the  colonies  is 
evidently  one  cause  of  their  resistance,  it  was  last  session 
mentioned    in   both    Houses   by  men   of    weight,    and  20 
received  not  without  applause,  that  in  order  to  check 
this  evil,  it  would  be  proper  for  the  crown  to  make  no 
further  grants  of  land.     But  to  this  scheme  there  are  two 
objections.     The   first,   that   there   is   already  so  much 
unsettled  land  in  private  hands  as  to  afford  room  for  an  25 
immense  future  population,  although  the  crown  not  only 
withheld  its  grants,  but  annihilated  its  soil.     If  this  be 
the  case,  then  the  only  effect  of  this  avarice  of  desolation, 
this  hoarding  of  a  royal  wilderness,  would  be  to  raise  the 
value  of  the  possessions  in  the  hands  of  the  great  private  30 
monopolists,  without  any  adequate  check  to  the  growing 
and  alarming  mischief  of  population. 


NATURE  PLEADS  FOR  FREEDOM.  31 

50.  But  if  you  stopped  your  grants,  what  would  be 
the  consequence?  The  people  would  occupy  without 
grants.  They  have  already  so  occupied  in  many  places. 
You  cannot  station  garrisons  in  every  part  of  these 
deserts.  If  you  drive  the  people  from  one  place,  they 
will  carry  on  their  annual  tillage  and  remove  with  their 
flocks  and  herds  to  another.  Many  of  the  people  in  the 
back  settlements  are  already  little  attached  to  particular 
situations.  Already  they  have  topped  the  Appalachian 

10  Mountains.  From  thence  they  behold  before  them  an 
immense  plain,  one  vast,  rich,  level  meadow ;  a  square 
of  five  hundred  miles.  Over  this  they  would  wander 
without  a  possibility  of  restraint ;  they  would  change 
their  manners  with  the  habits  of  their  life ;  would  soon 

15  forget  a  government  by  which  they  were  disowned ; 
would  become  hordes  of  English  Tartars,  and  pouring 
down  upon  .your  unfortified  frontiers  a  fierce  and  irre- 
sistible cavalry,  become  masters  of  your  governors  and 
your  counsellors,  your  collectors  and  comptrollers,  and 

20  of  all  the  slaves  that  adhered  to  them.  Such  would,  and 
in  no  long  time  must,  be  the  effect  of  attempting  to  for- 
bid as  a  crime,  and  to  suppress  as  an  evil,  the  command 
and  blessing  of  Providence,  "Increase  and  multiply." 
Such  would  be  the  happy  result  of  an  endeavor  to  keep 

25  as  a  lair  of  wild  beasts  that  earth  which  God,  by  an 
express  charter,  has  given  to  the  children  of  men.  Far 
different  and  surely  much  wiser  has  been  our  policy 
hitherto.  Hitherto  we  have  invited  our  people,  by  every 
kind  of  bounty,  to  fixed  establishments.  We  have 

30  invited  the  husbandman  to  look  to  authority  for  his  title. 
We  have  taught  him  piously  to  believe  in  the  mysterious 
virtue  of  wax  and  parchment.  We  have  thrown  each 


32  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

tract  of  land,  as  it  was  peopled,  into  districts,  that  the 
ruling  power  should  never  be  wholly  out  of  sight.  We 
have  settled  all  we  could ;  and  we  have  carefully  attended 
every  settlement  with  government. 

57.     Adhering,  Sir,  as  I  do,  to  this  policy,  as  well  as  S 
for  the  reasons  I  have  just  given,  I  think  this  new  pro- 
ject of  hedging-in  population  to  be  neither  prudent  nor 
practicable. 

52.     To  impoverish  the  colonies  in  general,  and  in 
particular   to   arrest  the  noble   course  of  their  marine  itt 
enterprises,  would  be  a  more  easy  task.     I  freely  confess 
it.     We  have  shown  a  disposition  to  a  system  of  this 
kind, — a  disposition  even  to  continue  the  restraint  after 
the  offence,  looking  on  ourselves  as  rivals  to  our  colonies, 
and  persuaded  that  of  course  we  must  gain  all  that  they  15 
shall  lose.     Much  mischief  we  may  certainly  do.     The 
power  inadequate  to  all  other  things  is  often  more  than 
sufficient   for   this.     I   do   not  look  on  the  direct  and 
immediate  power  of  the  colonies  to  resist  our  violence  as 
very  formidable.     In  this,  however,  I  may  be  mistaken.  20 
But  when  I  consider  that  we  have  colonies  for  no  pur- 
pose but  to  be  serviceable  to  us,  it  seems  to  my  poor 
understanding  a  little  preposterous  to  make  them  un- 
serviceable in  order  to  keep  them  obedient.     It  is,  in 
truth,  nothing  more  than  the  old  and,  as  I  thought,  ex-  25 
ploded  problem  of  tyranny,  which  proposes  to  beggar  its 
subjects  into  submission.     But  remember,  when  you  have 
completed  your  system  of  impoverishment,  that  Nature 
still   proceeds  in   her  ordinary  course ;   that  discontent 
will  increase  with  misery ;   and  that  there  are  critical  30 
moments  in  the  fortune  of  all  states,  when   they  who 
are  too  weak  to  contribute  to  your  prosperity  may  be 


CAN  THEIR  SPIRIT  BE  CHANGED  ?  33 

strong  enough  to  complete  your  ruin.     Spoliatis  arma 
supersunt. 

5J.  The  temper  and  character  which  prevail  in  our 
colonies  are,  I  am  afraid,  unalterable  by  any  human  art. 
We  cannot,  I  fear,  falsify  the  pedigree  of  this  fierce  peo- 
ple and  persuade  them  that  they  are  not  sprung  from  a 
nation  in  whose  veins  the  blood  of  freedom  circulates. 
The  language  in  which  they  would  hear  you  tell  them 
this  tale  would  detect  the  imposition ;  your  speech  would 

10  betray  you.  An  Englishman  is  the  unfittest  person  on 
earth  to  argue  another  Englishman  into  slavery. 

54.  I  think  it  is  nearly  as  little  in  our  power  to  change 
their  republican  religion  as  their  free  descent,  or  to  sub- 
stitute the  Roman  Catholic  as  a  penalty,  or  the  Church 

15  of  England  as  an  improvement.  The  mode  of  inquisi- 
tion and  dragooning  is  going  out  of  fashion  in  the  Old 
World ;  and  I  should  not  confide  much  to  their  efficacy 
in  the  New.  The  education  of  the  Americans  is  also  on 
the  same  unalterable  bottom  with  their  religion.  You 

20  cannot  persuade  them  to  burn  their  books  of  curious 
science ;  to  banish  their  lawyers  from  their  courts  of 
laws ;  or  to  quench  the  lights  of  their  assemblies  by  re- 
fusing to  choose  those  persons  who  are  best  read  in  their 
privileges.  It  would  be  no  less  impracticable  to  think 

25  of  wholly  annihilating  the  popular  assemblies  in  which 
these  lawyers  sit.  The  army,  by  which  we  must  govern 
in  their  place,  would  be  far  more  chargeable  to  us ;  not 
quite  so  effectual ;  and  perhaps  in  the  end  full  as  difficult 
to  be  kept  in  obedience. 

30  55.  With  regard  to  the  high  aristocratic  spirit  of 
Virginia  and  the  southern  colonies,  it  has  been  proposed, 
I  know,  to  reduce  it  by  declaring  a  general  enfranchise- 


34  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

ment  of  their  slaves.  This  project  has  had  its  advo- 
cates and  panegyrists ;  yet  I  never  could  argue  myself 
into  any  opinion  of  it.  Slaves  are  often  much  attached 
to  their  masters.  A  general  wild  offer  of  liberty  would 
not  always  be  accepted.  History  furnishes  few  instances 
of  it.  It  is  sometimes  as  hard  to  persuade  slaves  to  be 
free  as  it  is  to  compel  freemen  to  be  slaves ;  and  in  this 
auspicious  scheme  we  should  have  both  these  pleasing 
tasks  on  our  hands  at  once.  But  when  we  talk  of  en- 
franchisement, do  we  not  perceive  that  the  American  10 
master  may  enfranchise  too,  and  arm  servile  hands  in 
defence  of  freedom  ? — a  measure  to  which  other  people 
have  had  recourse  more  than  once,  and  not  without  suc- 
cess, in  a  desperate  situation  of  their  affairs. 

56.  Slaves  as  these  unfortunate  black  people  are,  and  15 
dull  as  all  men  are  from  slavery,  must  they  not  a  little 
suspect  the  offer  of  freedom  from  that  very  nation  which 
has  sold  them  to  their  present  masters?  from  that  nation, 
one  of  whose  causes  of  quarrel  with  those  masters  is  their 
refusal  to  deal  anymore  in  that  inhuman  traffic?     An  20 
offer  of  freedom  from  England  would  come  rather  oddly, 
shipped  to  them  in  an  African  vessel,  which  is  refused  an 
entry  into  the  ports  of  Virginia  or  Carolina,  with  a  cargo 

of  three  hundred  Angola  negroes.     It  would  be  curious 
to  see  the  Guinea  captain  attempting  at  the  same  instant  25 
to  publish  his  proclamation  of  liberty  and  to  advertise 
his  sale  of  slaves. 

57.  But  let  us  suppose  all  these  moral  difficulties  got 
over.     The  ocean  remains.     You  cannot  pump  this  dry ; 
and  as  long  as  it  continues  in  its  present  bed,  so  long  all  30 
the  causes  which  weaken  authority  by  distance  will  con- 
tinue. 


CAN  IT  BE  PROSECUTED  AS  CRIMINAL  ?        35 

Ye  gods,  annihilate  but  space  and  time, 
And  make  two  lovers  happy  ! 

was  a  pious  and  passionate  prayer,  but  just  as  reasonable 
as  many  of  the  serious  wishes  of  very  grave  and  solemn 
politicians. 

58.  If  then,  Sir,  it  seems  almost  desperate  to  think 
of  any  alterative  course  for  changing  the  moral  causes 
(and  not  quite  easy  to  remove  the  natural)  which  pro- 
duce prejudices  irreconcilable  to  the  late  exercise  of  our 

10  authority,  but  that  the  spirit  infallibly  will  continue ;  and 
continuing,  will  produce  such  effects  as  now  embarrass 
us, — the  second  mode  under  consideration  is  to  prosecute 
that  spirit  in  its  overt  acts  as  criminal. 

59.  At  this  proposition  I  must  pause  a  moment.    The 
15  thing  seems  a  great  deal  too  big  for  my  ideas  of  juris- 
prudence.    It  should  seem  to  my  way  of  conceiving  such 
matters,  that  there  is  a  very  wide  difference  in  reason  and 
policy  between  the  mode  of  proceeding  on  the  irregular 
conduct  of  scattered  individuals,  or  even  of  bands  of 

20  men,  who  disturb  order  within  the  state,  and  the  civil 
dissensions  which  may,  from  time  to  time,  on  great  ques- 
tions, agitate  the  several  communities  which  compose  a 
great  empire.  It  looks  to  me  to  be  narrow  and  pedantic 
to  apply  the  ordinary  ideas  of  criminal  justice  to  this 

25  great  public  contest.  I  do  not  know  the  method  of 
drawing  up  an  indictment  against  a  whole  people.  I 
cannot  insult  and  ridicule  the  feelings  of  millions  of  my 
fellow-creatures,  as  Sir  Edward  Coke  insulted  one  ex- 
cellent individual  (Sir  Walter  Raleigh)  at  the  bar.  J  am 

30  not  ripe  to  pass  sentence  on  the  gravest  public  bodies, 
entrusted  with  magistracies  of  great  authority  and  dig- 
nity, and  charged  with  the  safety  of  their  fellow-citizens, 


36  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

upon  the  very  same  title  that  I  am.  I  really  think  that 
for  wise  men  this  is  not  judicious;  for  sober  men,  not 
decent ;  for  minds  tinctured  with  humanity,  not  mild 
and  merciful. 

60.     Perhaps,  Sir,  I  am  mistaken  in  my  idea  of  an  5 
empire  as  distinguished  from  a  single  state  or  kingdom. 
But  my  idea  of  it  is  this :  that  an  empire  is  the  aggregate 
of  many  states  under  one  common  head,  whether  this 
head  be  a  monarch  or  a  presiding  republic.     It  does  in 
such  constitutions  frequently  happen  (and  nothing  but  10 
the  dismal,  cold,  dead  uniformity  of  servitude  can  pre- 
vent its  happening)  that  the  subordinate  parts  have  many 
local  privileges  and  immunities.     Between   these  privi- 
leges and  the  supreme  common  authority  the  line  may  be 
extremely  nice.     Of  course   disputes — often,    too,  very  15 
bitter    disputes — and   much   ill   blood   will   arise.     But 
though  every  privilege  is  an  exemption  (in  the  case)  from 
the  ordinary  exercise  of  the  supreme  authority,  it  is  no 
denial  of  it.     The  claim  of  a  privilege  seems  rather,  ex 
vi  termini,  to  imply  a  superior  power ;  for  to  talk  of  the  20 
privileges  of  a  state  or  of  a  person  who  has  no  superior, 
is  hardly  any  better  than  speaking  nonsense.     Now  in 
such  unfortunate  quarrels  among  the  component  parts  of 
a  great  political  union  of  communities,  I  can  scarcely 
conceive  anything  more  completely  imprudent  than  for  25 
the  head  of  the  empire  to  insist  that,  if  any  privilege  is 
pleaded  against  his  will  or  his  acts,  [that]  his  whole  au- 
thority is  denied  ;  instantly  to  proclaim  rebellion,  to  beat 
to  arms,  and  to  put  the  offending  provinces  under  the 
ban.     Will  not  this,  Sir,  very  soon  teach  the  provinces  30 
to  make  no  distinctions  on  their  part  ?     Will  it  not  teach 
them  that  the  government  against  which  a  claim  of  lib- 


PERILS  OF  CRIMINAL  PROSECUTION.  37 

erty  is  tantamount  to  high  treason  is  a  government  to 
which  submission  is  equivalent  to  slavery  ?  It  may  not 
always  be  quite  convenient  to  impress  dependent  com- 
munities with  such  an  idea. 

61.  We  are,  indeed,  in  all  disputes  with  the  colonies, 
by  the  necessity  of  things,  the  judge.     It  is  true,  Sir. 
But  I  confess  that  the  character  of  judge  in  my  own 
cause  is  a  thing  that  frightens  me.     Instead  of  filUng  me 
with  pride,  I  am  exceedingly  humbled  by  it.     I  cannot 

10  proceed  with  a  stern,  assured,  judicial  confidence,  until 
I  find  myself  in  something  more  like  a  judicial  character. 
I  must  have  these  hesitations  as  long  as  I  am  compelled 
to  recollect  that,  in  my  little  reading  upon  such  contests 
as  these,  the  sense  of  mankind  has  at  least  as  often  de- 
cided  against  the  superior  as  the  subordinate  power. 
Sir,  let  me  add,  too,  that  the  opinion  of  my  having  some 
abstract  right  in  my  favor  would  not  put  me  much  at  my 
ease  in  passing  sentence,  unless  I  could  be  sure  that  there 
were  no  rights  which,  in  their  exercise  under  certain  cir- 

20  cumstances,  were  not  the  most  odious  of  ail  wrongs  and 
the  most  vexatious  of  all  injustice.  Sir,  these  considera- 
tions have  great  weight  with  me,  when  I  find  things  so 
circumstanced,  that  I  see  the  same  party  at  once  a  civil 
litigant  against  me  in  point  of  right  and  a  culprit  before 

25  me,  while  I  sit  as  a  criminal  judge  on  acts  of  his,  whose 
moral  quality  is  to  be  decided  upon  the  merits  of  that 
very  litigation.  Men  are  every  now  and  then  put,  by 
the  complexity  of  human  affairs,  into  strange  situations ; 
but  justice  is  the  same,  let  the  judge  be  in  what  situation 

jo  he  will. 

62.  There  is,   Sir,  also  a   circumstance  which   con- 
vinces me  that  this  mode  of  criminal  proceeding  is  not 

80122 


38  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

(at  least  in  the  present  stage  of  our  contest)  altogether 
expedient,  which  is  nothing  less  than  the  conduct  of 
those  very  persons  who  have  seemed  to  adopt  that  mode, 
by  lately  declaring  a  rebellion  in  Massachusetts  Bay,  as 
they  had  formerly  addressed  to  have  traitors  brought  5 
hither,  under  an  act  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  for  trial.  For 
though  rebellion  is  declared,  it  is  not  proceeded  against 
as  such  ;  nor  have  any  steps  been  taken  towards  the  ap- 
prehension or  conviction  of  any  individual  offender, 
either  on  our  late  or  our  former  address  ;  but  modes  of  10 
public  coercion  have  been  adopted,  and  such  as  have 
much  more  resemblance  to  a  sort  of  qualified  hostility 
towards  an  independent  power  than  the  punishment  of 
rebellious  subjects.  All  this  seems  rather  inconsistent ; 
but  it  shows  how  difficult  it  is  to  apply  these  juridical  15 
ideas  to  our  present  case. 

6j.  In  this  situation,  let  us  seriously  and  coolly 
ponder.  What  is  it  we  have  got  by  all  our  menaces, 
which  have  been  many  and  ferocious?  What  advantage 
have  we  derived  from  the  penal  laws  we  have  passed,  20 
and  which,  for  the  time,  have  been  severe  and  numerous  ? 
What  advances  have  we  made  towards  our  object,  by 
the  sending  of  a  force  which,  by  land  and  sea,  is  no 
contemptible  strength?  Has  the  disorder  abated? 
Nothing  less.  When  I  see  things  in  this  situation,  after  25 
such  confident  hopes,  bold  promises  and  active  exertions, 
I  cannot  for  my  life  avoid  a  suspicion  that  the  plan  itself 
is  not  correctly  right. 

64.     If,  then,  the  removal  of  the  causes  of  this  spirit 
of  American  liberty  be  for  the  greater  part,  or  rather  30 
entirely,  impracticable  ;  if  the  ideas  of  criminal  process 
be  inapplicable,  or  if  applicable,  are  in  the  highest  de- 


ENGLAND'S  RIGHT  TO  TAX.  39 

gree  inexpedient ;  what  way  yet  remains  ?  No  way  is 
open  but  the  third  and  last, — to  comply  with  the  Ameri- 
can spirit  as  necessary ;  or,  if  you  please,  to  submit  to  it 
as  a  necessary  evil. 

65.  If  we  adopt  this  mode,  if  we  mean  to  conciliate 
and  concede,  let  us  see  of  what  nature  the  concession 
ought  to  be.     To  ascertain  the  nature  of  our  concession, 
we  must  look  at  their  complaint.     The  colonies  complain 
that  they  have  not  the  characteristic  mark  and  seal  of 

10  British  freedom.  They  complain  that  they  are  taxed  in 
a  Parliament  in  which  they  are  not  represented.  If  you 
mean  to  satisfy  them  at  all,  you  must  satisfy  them  with 
regard  to  this  complaint.  If  you  mean  to  please  any 
people,  you  must  give  them  the  boon  which  they  ask, — 

15  not  what  you  may  think  better  for  them,  but  of  a  kind 
totally  different.  Such  an  act  may  be  a  wise  regulation, 
but  it  is  no  concession ;  whereas  our  present  theme  is  the 
mode  of  giving  satisfaction. 

66.  Sir,  I  think  you  must  perceive  that  I  am  resolved 
20  this  day  to  have  nothing  at  all  to  do  with  the  question  of 

the  right  of  taxation.  Some  gentlemen  startle, — but  it 
is  true;  I  put  it  totally  out  of  the  question.  It  is  less 
than  nothing  in  my  consideration.  I  do  not  indeed  won- 
der, nor  will  you,  Sir,  that  gentlemen  of  profound  learn- 

25  ing  are  fond  of  displaying  it  on  this  profound  subject. 
But  my  consideration  is  narrow,  confined,  and  wholly 
limited  to  the  policy  of  the  question.  I  do  not  examine 
whether  the  giving  away  a  man's  money  be  a  power  ex- 
cepted  and  reserved  out  of  the  general  trust  of  govern- 

30  ment ;  and  how  far  all  mankind,  in  all  forms  of  polity, 
are  entitled  to  an  exercise  of  that  right  by  the  charter  of 
Nature  ;  or  whether,  on  the  contrary,  a  right  of  taxation 


40  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

is  necessarily  involved  in  the  general  principle  of  legisla- 
tion and  .  inseparable  from  the  ordinary  supreme  power. 
These  are  deep  questions,  where  great  names  militate 
against  each  other ;  where  reason  is  perplexed  ;  and  an 
appeal  to  authorities  only  thickens  the  confusion  :  for  high  5 
and  reverend  authorities  lift  up  their  heads  on  both  sides ; 
and  there  is  no  sure  footing  in  the  middle.  This  point 
is  the  great 

Serbonian  bog, 

Betwixt  Damiata  and  Mount  Casius  old,  |O 

Where  armies  whole  have  sunk. 

I  do  not  intend  to  be  overwhelmed  in  that  bog,  though 
in  such  respectable  company.  The  question  with  me  is, 
not  whether  you  have  a  right  to  render  your  people  mis- 
erable, but  whether  it  is  not  your  interest  to  make  them  15 
happy.  It  is  not  what  a  lawyer  tells  me  I  may  do,  but 
what  humanity,  reason  and  justice  tell  me  I  ought  to  do. 
Is  a  politic  act  the  worse  for  being  a  generous  one  ?  Is 
no  concession  proper  but  that  which  is  made  from  your 
want  of  right  to  keep  what  you  grant?  Or  does  it  lessen  20 
the  grace  or  dignity  of  relaxing  in  the  exercise  of  an 
odious  claim,  because  you  have  your  evidence-room  full 
of  titles  and  your  magazines  stuffed  with  arms  to  enforce 
them?  What  signify  all  those  titles  and  all  those  arms? 
Of  what  avail  are  they,  when  the  reason  of  the  thing  25 
tells  me  that  the  assertion  of  my  title  is  the  loss  of  my 
suit;  and  that  I  could  do  nothing  but  wound  myself  by 
the  use  of  my  own  weapons  ? 

67.     Such  is  steadfastly  my  opinion  of  the  absolute 
necessity  of  keeping  up  the  concord  of  this  empire  by  a  30 
unity  of  spirit,  though  in  a  diversity  of  operations,  that 


EXTEND  CONSTITUTIONAL  PRIVILEGES.       41 

if  I  were  sure  the  colonists  had  at  their  leaving  this 
country  sealed  a  regular  compact  of  servitude,  that  they 
had  solemnly  abjured  all  the  rights  of  citizens,  that  they 
had  made  a  vow  to  renounce  all  ideas  of  liberty  for 

5  them  and  their  posterity  to  all  generations ;  yet  I  should 
hold  myself  obliged  to  conform  to  the  temper  I  found 
universally  prevalent  in  my  own  day,  and  to  govern  two 
million  of  men,  impatient  of  servitude,  on  the  principles 
of  freedom.  I  am  not  determining  a  point  of  law,  I  am 

10  restoring  tranquillity;  and  the  general  character  and 
situation  of  a  people  must  determine  what  sort  of  govern- 
ment is  fitted  for  them.  That  point  nothing  else  can  or 
ought  to  determine. 

68.  My  idea,  therefore,  without  considering  whether 
15  we  yield  as  matter  of  right  or  grant  as  matter  of  favor, 

is  to  admit  the  people  of  our  colonies  into  an  interest  in  the 
Constitution;  and  by  recording  that  admission  in  the 
journals  of  Parliament,  to  give  them  as  strong  an  assur- 
ance as  the  nature  of  the  thing  will  admit,  that  we  mean 
20  forever  to  adhere  to  that  solemn  declaration  of  systematic 
indulgence. 

69.  Some  years  ago,  the  repeal  of  a  revenue  act, 
upon  its  understood  principle,  might  have  served  to  show 
that  we  intended  an  unconditional  abatement  of  the  ex- 

25  ercise  of  a  taxing  power.  Such  a  measure  was  then 
sufficient  to  remove  all  suspicion  and  to  give  perfect  con- 
tent. But  unfortunate  events  since  that  time  may  make 
something  further  necessary  ;  and  not  more  necessary  for 
the  satisfaction  of  the  colonies  than  for  the  dignity  and 

30  consistency  of  our  own  future  proceedings. 

70.  I  have  taken  a  very  incorrect  measure  of  the  dis- 
position of  the  House,  if  this  proposal  in  itself  would  be 


43  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

received  with  dislike.  I  think,  Sir,  we  have  few  Ameri- 
can financiers.  But  our  misfortune  is,  we  are  too  acute ; 
we  are  too  exquisite  in  our  conjectures  of  the  future, 
for  men  oppressed  with  such  great  and  present  evils. 
The  more  moderate  among  the  opposers  of  parliamen-  5 
tary  concession  freely  confess  that  they  hope  no  good 
from  taxation  ;  but  they  apprehend  the  colonists  have 
further  views,  and  if  this  point  were  conceded,  they 
would  instantly  attack  the  trade  laws.  These  gentlemen 
are  convinced  that  this  was  the  intention  from  the  be-  10 
ginning,  and  the  quarrel  of  the  Americans  with  taxation 
was  no  more  than  a  cloak  and  cover  to  this  design. 
Such  has  been  the  language,  even  of  a  gentleman  of  real 
moderation  and  of  a  natural  temper  well  adjusted  to  fair 
and  equal  government.  I  am,  however,  Sir,  not  a  little  15 
surprised  at  this  kind  of  discourse  whenever  I  hear  it ; 
and  I  am  the  more  surprised  on  account  of  the  argu- 
ments which  I  constantly  find  in  company  with  it,  and 
which  are  often  urged  from  the  same  mouths  and  on  the 
same  day.  20 

77.  For  instance,  when  we  allege  that  it  is  against  rea- 
son to  tax  a  people  under  so  many  restraints  in  trade  as 
the  Americans,  the  noble  lord  in  the  blue  ribbon  shall  tell 
you  that  the  restraints  on  trade  are  futile  and  useless,  of 
no  advantage  to  us,  and  of  no  burden  to  those  on  whom  25 
they  are  imposed ;  that  the  trade  to  America  is  not  se- 
cured by  the  Acts  of  Navigation,  but  by  the  natural  and 
irresistible  advantage  of  a  commercial  preference. 

72.     Such  is  the  merit  of  the  trade  laws  in  this  posture 
of  the  debate.     But  when  strong  internal  circumstances  30 
are  urged  against  the  taxes ;  when  the  scheme  is  dissected  ; 
when  experience  and  the  nature  of  things  are  brought  to 


TRADE-LA  WS  ENDANGERED.  43 

prove,  and  do  prove,  the  utter  impossibility  of  obtaining 
an  effective  revenue  from  the  colonies ; — when  these 
things  are  pressed,  or  rather  press  themselves,  so  as  to 
drive  the  advocates  of  colony  taxes  to  a  clear  admission 
5  of  the  futility  of  the  scheme;  then,  Sir,  the  sleeping 
trade  laws  revive  from  their  trance,  and  this  useless  taxa- 
tion is  to  be  kept  sacred,  not  for  its  own  sake,  but  as  a 
counterguard  and  security  of  the  laws  of  trade. 

7^.     Then,  Sir,  you  keep  up  revenue  laws  which  are 

10  mischievous  in  order  to  preserve  trade  laws  that  are  use- 
less. Such  is  the  wisdom  of  our  plan  in  both  its  mem- 
bers. They  are  separately  given  up  as  of  no  value ; 
and  yet  one  is  always  to  be  defended  for  the  sake  of  the 
other.  But  I  cannot  agree  with  the  noble  lord  nor  with 

15  the  pamphlet  from  whence  he  seems  to  have  borrowed 
these  ideas  concerning  the  inutility  of  the  trade  laws; 
for  without  idolizing  them,  I  am  sure  they  are  still  in 
many  ways  of  great  use  to  us,  and  in  former  times  they 
have  been  of  the  greatest.  They  do  confine,  and  they 

20  do  greatly  narrow,  the  market  for  the  Americans.  But 
my  perfect  conviction  of  this  does  not  help  me  in  the 
least  to  discern  how  the  revenue  laws  form  any  security 
whatsoever  to  the  commercial  regulations;  or  that  these 
commercial  regulations  are  the  true  ground  of  the 

25  quarrel ;  or  that  the  giving  way  in  any  one  instance  of 
authority  is  to  lose  all  that  may  remain  unconceded. 

74.  One  fact  is  clear  and  indisputable :  the  public 
and  avowed  origin  of  this  quarrel  was  on  taxation.  This 
quarrel  has  indeed  brought  on  new  disputes  on  new 

30  questions ;  but  certainly  the  least  bitter  and  the  fewest 
of  all  on  the  trade  laws.  To  judge  which  of  the  two  be 
the  real,  radical  cause  of  quarrel,  we  have  to  see  whether 


44  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

the  commercial  dispute  did,  in  order  of  time,  precede 
the  dispute  on  taxation  ?  There  is  not  a  shadow  of 
evidence  for  it.  Next,  to  enable  us  to  judge  whether  at 
this  moment  a  dislike  to  the  trade  laws  be  the  real  cause 
of  quarrel,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  put  the  taxes  out  5 
of  the  question  by  a  repeal.  See  how  the  Americans  act 
in  this  position,  and  then  you  will  be  able  to  discern 
correctly  what  is  the  true  object  of  the  controversy,  or 
whether  any  controversy  at  all  will  remain.  Unless  you 
consent  to  remove  this  cause  of  difference,  it  is  impos-  10 
sible  with  decency  to  assert  that  the  dispute  is  not  upon 
what  it  is  avowed  to  be.  And  I  would,  Sir,  recommend 
to  your  serious  consideration,  whether  it  be  prudent  to 
form  a  rule  for  punishing  people,  not  on  their  own  acts, 
but  on  your  conjectures.  Surely  it  is  preposterous  at  the  15 
very  best.  It  is  not  justifying  your  anger  by  their  mis- 
conduct, but  it  is  converting  your  ill-will  into  their 
delinquency. 

75.  But  the  colonies  will  go  further.     Alas !    alas  ! 
when  will  this  speculating  against  fact  and  reason  end  ?  20 
What  will  quiet  these  panic  fears  which  we  entertain  of 
the  hostile  effect  of  a  conciliatory  conduct  ?     Is  it  true 
that  no  case  can  exist  in  which  it  is  proper  for  the  sover- 
eign to  accede  to  the  desires  of  his  discontented  subjects? 

Is  there  anything  peculiar  in  this  case  to  make  a  rule  for  25 
itself?     Is  all  authority  of  course  lost,  when  it  is  not 
pushed  to  the  extreme  ?     Is  it  a  certain  maxim  that  the 
fewer  causes  of  dissatisfaction  are  left  by  government,  the 
more  the  subject  will  be  inclined  to  resist  and  rebel  ? 

76.  All  these  objections  being  in  fact  no  more  than  30 
suspicions,  conjectures,  divinations,  formed  in  defiance 

of  fact  and  experience,  they  did  not,  Sir,  discourage  me 


ENGLISH  HISTORY  THE  GUIDE.  45 

from  entertaining  the  idea  of  a  conciliatory  concession, 
founded  on  the  principles  which  I  have  just  stated. 

77.  In  forming  a  plan  for  this  purpose,  I  endeavored 
to  put  myself  in  that  frame  of  mind  which  was  the  most 
5  natural  and  the  most  reasonable,  and  which  was  certainly 
the  most  probable  means  of  securing  me  from  all  error. 
I  set  out  with  a  perfect  distrust  of  my  own  abilities,  a 
total  renunciation  of  every  speculation  of  my  own ;  and 
with  a  profound  reverence  for  the  wisdom  of  our  an- 

10  cestors,  who  have  left  us  the  inheritance  of  so  happy  a 
constitution  and  so  flourishing  an  empire,  and,  what  is  a 
thousand  times  more  valuable,  the  treasury  of  the  max- 
ims and  principles  which  formed  the  one  and  obtained 
the  other. 

15  7$.  During  the  reigns  of  the  kings  of  Spain  of  the 
Austrian  family,  whenever  they  were  at  a  loss  in  the 
Spanish  councils,  it  was  common  for  their  statesmen  to 
say  that  they  ought  to  consult  the  genius  of  Philip  the 
Second.  The  genius  of  Philip  the  Second  might  mislead 

20  them ;  and  the  issue  of  their  affairs  showed  that  they  had 
not  chosen  the  most  perfect  standard.  But,  Sir,  I  am 
sure  that  I  shall  not  be  misled,  when  in  a  case  of  consti- 
tutional difficulty  I  consult  the  genius  of  the  English 
Constitution.  Consulting  at  that  oracle  (it  was  with  all 

25  due  humility  and  piety),  I  found  four  capital  examples 
in  a  similar  case  before  me :  those  of  Ireland,  Wales, 
Chester  and  Durham. 

79.     Ireland    before    the    English   conquest,   though 
never    governed    by   a   despotic   power,    had    no   Par- 

30  liament.  How  far  the  English  Parliament  itself  was 
at  that  time  modelled  according  to  the  present  form 
is  disputed  among  antiquarians.  But  we  have  all  the 


46  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

reason  in  the  world  to  be  assured  that  a  form  of  Parlia- 
ment such  as  England  then  enjoyed  she  instantly  com- 
municated to  Ireland  ;  and  we  are  equally  sure  that  almost 
every  successive  improvement  in  constitutional  liberty,  as 
fast  as  it  was  made  here,  was  transmitted  thither.  The  ; 
feudal  baronage  and  the  feudal  knighthood,  the  roots  of 
our  primitive  constitution,  were  early  transplanted  into 
that  soil,  and  grew  and  flourished  there.  Magna  Charta, 
if  it  did  not  give  us  originally  the  House  of  Commons, 
gave  us  at  least  a  House  of  Commons  of  weight  and  10 
consequence.  But  your  ancestors  did  not  churlishly  sit 
down  alone  to  the  feast  of  Magna  Charta.  Ireland  \vas 
made  immediately  a  partaker.  This  benefit  of  English 
laws  and  liberties,  I  confess,  was  not  at  first  extended  to 
all  Ireland.  Mark  the  consequence.  English  authority  15 
and  English  liberties  had  exactly  the  same  boundaries. 
Your  standard  could  never  be  advanced  an  inch  before 
your  privileges.  Sir  John  Davies  shows  beyond  a  doubt 
that  the  refusal  of  a  general  communication  of  these 
rights  was  the  true  cause  why  Ireland  was  five  hundred  20 
years  in  subduing ;  and  after  the  vain  projects  of  a  mili- 
tary government,  attempted  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, it  was  soon  discovered  that  nothing  could  make  that 
country  English  in  civility  and  allegiance,  but  your  laws 
and  your  forms  of  legislature.  It  was  not  English  arms,  25 
but  the  English  Constitution,  that  conquered  Ireland. 
From  that  time  Ireland  has  ever  had  a  general  Parlia- 
ment, as  she  had  before  a  partial  Parliament.  You 
changed  the  people,  you  altered  the  religion,  but  you 
never  touched  the  form  or  the  vital  substance  of  free  gov-  30 
ernment  in  that  kingdom.  You  deposed  kings ;  you 
restored  them ;  you  altered  the  succession  to  theirs  as 


IRELAND  AND    WALES.  47 

well  as  to  your  own  crown ;  but  you  never  altered  their 
constitution,  the  principle  of  which  was  respected  by 
usurpation,  restored  with  the  restoration  of  monarchy, 
and  established,  I  trust,  forever  by  the  glorious  Revolu- 
5  tion.  This  has  made  Ireland  the  great  and  flourishing 
kingdom  that  it  is ;  and  from  a  disgrace  and  a  burden 
intolerable  to  this  nation,  has  rendered  her  a  principal 
part  of  her  strength  and  ornament.  This  country  cannot 
be  said  to  have  ever  formally  taxed  her.  The  irregular 

10  things  done  in  the  confusion  of  mighty  troubles  and  on 
the  hinge  of  great  revolutions,  even  if  all  were  done  that 
is  said  to  have  been  done,  form  no  example.  If  they 
have  any  effect  in  argument,  they  make  an  exception  to 
prove  the  rule.  None  of  your  own  liberties  could  stand 

15  a  moment,  if  the  casual  deviations  from  them  at  such 
times  were  suffered  to  be  used  as  proofs  of  their  nullity. 
By  the  lucrative  amount  of  such  casual  breaches  in  the 
Constitution,  judge  what  the  stated  and  fixed  rule  of  sup- 
ply has  been  in  that  kingdom.  Your  Irish  pensioners 

20  would  starve,  if  they  had  no  other  fund  to  live  on  than 
taxes  granted  by  English  authority.  Turn  your  eyes  to 
those  popular  grants  from  whence  all  your  great  supplies 
are  come,  and  learn  to  respect  that  only  source  of  public 
wealth  in  the  British  Empire. 

25  Bo.  My  next  example  is  Wales.  This  country  was 
said  to  be  reduced  by  Henry  the  Third.  It  was  said  more 
truly  to  be  so  by  Edward  the  First.  But  though  then 
conquered,  it  was  not  looked  upon  as  any  part  of  the 
realm  of  England.  Its  old  constitution,  whatever  that 

30  might  have  been,  was  destroyed,  and  no  good  one  was 
substituted  in  its  place.  The  care  of  that  tract  was  put 
into  the  hands  of  Lords  Marchers, — a  form  of  govern- 


48  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

ment  of  a  very  singular  kind,  a  strange,  heterogeneous 
monster,  something  between  hostility  and  government ; 
perhaps  it  has  a  sort  of  resemblance,  according  to  the 
modes  of  those  times,  to  that  of  commander-in-chief  at 
present,  to  whom  all  civil  power  is  granted  as  secondary.  5 
The  manners  of  the  Welsh  nation  followed  the  genius  of 
the  government :  the  people  were  ferocious,  restive, 
savage,  and  uncultivated,  sometimes  composed,  never 
pacified.  Wales,  within  itself,  was  in  perpetual  disorder ; 
and  it  kept  the  frontier  ol  England  in  perpetual  alarm.  10 
Benefits  from  it  to  the  state  there  were  none.  Wales  was 
only  known  to  England  by  incursion  and  invasion. 

Si.     Sir,  during  that  state  of  things  Parliament  was 
not  idle.     They  attempted  to  subdue  the  fierce  spirit  of 
the   Welsh   by   all   sorts  of  rigorous  laws.     They  pro-  15 
hibited   by  statute   the   sending   all   sorts   of  arms  into 
Wales,  as  you  prohibit  by  proclamation  (with  something 
more   of  doubt   on   the   legality)    the   sending   arms  to 
America.     They  disarmed  the  Welsh  by  statute,  as  you 
attempted  (but  still  with  more  question  on  the  legality)  20 
to  disarm  New  England  by  an  instruction.     They  made 
an  act  to  drag  offenders  from  Wales  into  England  for 
trial,  as  you   have  done   (but  with  more  hardship)  with 
regard  to  America.     By  another  act,  where  one  of  the 
parties  was  an  Englishman,  they  ordained  that  his  trial  25 
should  be  always  by  English.     They  made  acts  to  restrain 
trade,  as  you  do ;  and  they  prevented  the  Welsh  from  the 
use  of  fairs  and  markets,  as  you  do  the  Americans  from 
fisheries  and  foreign  ports.     In  short,  when  the  statute- 
book  was  not  quite  so  much  swelled  as  it  is  now,  you  find  30 
no  less  than  fifteen  acts  of  penal  regulation  on  the  sub- 
ject of  Wales. 


LIBERTY  BEGETS  OBEDIENCE.  49 

82.  Here  we  rub  our  hands — A  fine  body  of  prece- 
dents for  the  authority  of  Parliament  and  the  use  of  it  ! 
— I  admit  it  fully ;  and  pray  add  likewise  to  these  prece- 
dents, that  all  the  while  Wales  rid  this  kingdom  like  an 
5  incubus  ;  that  it  was  an  unprofitable  and  oppressive  bur- 
den; and  that  an  Englishman  travelling  in  that  country 
could  not  go  six  yards  from  the  high-road  without  being 
murdered. 

8}.     The  march  of  the  human  mind  is  slow.     Sir,  it 

io  was  not  until  after  two  hundred  years  discovered  that  by 
an  eternal  law  Providence  had  decreed  vexation  to  vio- 
lence, and  poverty  to  rapine.  Your  ancestors  did,  how- 
ever, at  length  open  their  eyes  to  the  ill-husbandry  of 
injustice.  They  found  that  the  tyranny  of  a  free  people 

15  could  of  all  tyrannies  the  least  be  endured;  and  that 
laws  made  against  an  whole  nation  were  not  the  most 
effectual  methods  for  securing  its  obedience.  Accord- 
ingly, in  the  twenty-seventh  year  of  Henry  the  Eighth, 
the  course  was  entirely  altered.  With  a  preamble  stat- 

20  ing  the  entire  and  perfect  rights  of  the  crown  of  Eng- 
land, it  gave  to  the  Welsh  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of 
English  subjects.  A  political  order  was  established ;  the 
military  power  gave  way  to  the  civil ;  the  marches  were 
turned  into  counties.  But  that  a  nation  should  have  a 

25  right  to  English  liberties,  and  yet  no  share  at  all  in  the 
fundamental  security  of  these  liberties, — the  grant  of 
their  own  property, — seemed  a  thing  so  incongruous  that 
eight  years  after, — that  is,  in  the  thirty-fifth  of  that 
reign, — a  complete  and  not  ill-proportioned  representa- 

30  tion  by  counties  and  boroughs  was  bestowed  upon  Wales 
by  act  of  Parliament.  From  that  moment,  as  by  a 
charm,  the  tumults  subsided;  obedience  was  restored; 


50  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

peace,  order  and  civilization  followed  in  the  train  of 
liberty.  When  the  day-star  of  the  English  Constitution 
had  arisen  in  their  hearts,  all  was  harmony  within  and 
without : — 

— Simul  alba  nautis  5 

Stella  refulsit, 

Defluit  saxis  agitatus  humor; 
Concidunt  venti,  fugiuntque  nubes, 
Et  minax  (quod  sic  voluere)  ponto 

Unda  recumbit.  io 

84.  The  very  same  year  the  County  Palatine  of 
Chester  received  the  same  relief  from  its  oppressions  and 
the  same  remedy  to  its  disorders.  Before  this  time 
Chester  was  little  less  distempered  than  Wales.  The  in- 
habitants, without  rights  themselves,  were  the  fittest  to  '5 
destroy  the  rights  of  others ;  and  from  thence  Richard 
the  Second  drew  the  standing  army  of  archers  with 
which  for  a  time  he  oppressed  England.  The  people  of 
Chester  applied  to  Parliament  in  a  petition  penned  as  I 
shall  read  to  you  : —  20 

To  the  Kin^  our  Sovereign  Lord,  in  most  humble  wiseshewen 
unto  your  most  excellent  Majesty  the  inhabitants  of  your  Grace's 
County  Palatine  of  Chester:  (I)  That  where  the  said  County 
Palatine  of  Chester  is  and  hath  been  always  hitherto  exempt,  ex- 
cluded and  separated  out  and  from  your  high  court  of  Parliament,  25 
to  have  any  knights  and  burgesses  within  the  said  court; by  reason 
whereof  the  said  inhabitants  have  hitherto  sustained  manifold  dis- 
herisons, losses  and  damages,  as  well  in  their  lands,  goods  and 
bodies,  as  in  the  good,  civil  and  politic  governance  and  maintenance 
of  the  commonwealth  of  their  said  country.  (2)  And  forasmuch  30 
as  the  said  inhabitants  have  always  hitherto  been  bound  by  the 
acts  and  statutes  made  and  ordained  by  your  said  Highness  and 


CHESTER  AND  DURHAM.  51 

your  most  noble  progenitors,  by  authority  of  the  said  court,  as  fai 
forth  as  other  counties,  cities  and  boroughs  have  been,  that  have 
had  their  knights  and  burgesses  within  your  said  court  of  Parlia- 
ment, and  yet  have  had  neither  knight  ne  burgess  there  for  the  said 

c  County  Palatine ;  the  said  inhabitants,  for  lack  thereof,  have  been 
oftentimes  touched  and  grieved  with  acts  and  statutes  made  within 
the  said  court,  as  well  derogatory  unto  the  most  ancient  jurisdic- 
tions, liberties  and  privileges  of  your  said  County  Palatine,  as  preju- 
dicial unto  the  commonwealth,  quietness,  rest  and  peace  of  your 

lo  Grace's  most  bounden  subjects  inhabiting  within  the  same. 

#5.  What  did  Parliament  with  this  audacious  ad- 
dress ?  Reject  it  as  a  libel  ?  Treat  it  as  an  affront  to 
government  ?  Spurn  it  as  a  derogation  from  the  rights 
of  legislature?  Did  they  toss  it  over  the  table?  Did 

15  they  burn  it  by  the  hands  of  the  common  hangman? 
They  took  the  petition  of  grievance,  all  rugged  as  it  was, 
without  softening  or  temperament,  unpurged  of  the  origi- 
nal bitterness  and  indignation  of  complaint ;  they  made 
it  the  very  preamble  to  their  act  of  redress,  and  conse- 

20  crated  its  principle  to  all  ages  in  the  sanctuary  of  legis- 
lation. 

86.  Here  is  my  third  example.  It  was  attended  with 
the  success  of  the  two  former.  Chester,  civilized  as  well 
as  Wales,  has  demonstrated  that  freedom,  and  not  servi- 

25  tude,  is  the  cure  for  anarchy;  as  religion,  and  not  athe- 
ism, is  the  true  remedy  for  superstition.  Sir,  this  pattern 
of  Chester  was  followed  in  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Sec- 
ond with  regard  to  the  County  Palatine  of  Durham, 
which  is  my  fourth  example.  This  county  had  long  lain 

30  out  of  the  pale  of  free  legislation.  So  scrupulously  was 
the  example  of  Chester  followed,  that  the  style  of  the 
preamble  is  nearly  the  same  with  that  of  the  Chester  act; 


52  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

and  without  affecting  the  abstract  extent  of  the  authority 
of  Parliament,  it  recognizes  the  equity  of  not  suffering 
any  considerable  district  in  which  the  British  subjects 
may  act  as  a  body,  to  be  taxed  without  their  own  voice 
in  the  grant.  5 

Sj.  Now  if  the  doctrines  of  policy  contained  in  these 
preambles  and  the  force  of  these  examples  in  the  acts  of 
Parliaments  avail  anything,  what  can  be  said  against 
applying  them  with  regard  to  America  ?  Are  not  the 
people  of  America  as  much  Englishmen  as  the  Welsh  ?  10 
The  preamble  of  the  act  of  Henry  the  Eighth  says  the 
Welsh  speak  a  language  no  way  resembling  that  of  his 
Majesty's  English  subjects.  Are  the  Americans  not  as 
numerous?  If  we  may  trust  the  learned  and  accurate 
Judge  Barrington's  account  of  North  Wales,  and  take  15 
that  as  a  standard  to  measure  the  rest,  there  is  no  com- 
parison. The  people  cannot  amount  to  above  200,000, 
— not  a  tenth  part  of  the  number  in  the  colonies.  Is 
America  in  rebellion  ?  Wales  was  hardly  ever  free  from  it. 
Have  you  attempted  to  govern  America  by  penal  statutes?  20 
You  made  fifteen  for  Wales.  But  your  legislative  au- 
thority is  perfect  with  regard  to  America.  Was  it  less 
perfect  in  Wales,  Chester,  and  Durham  ?  But  America 
is  virtually  represented.  What !  does  the  electric  force 
of  virtual  representation  more  easily  pass  over  the  Atlantic  25 
than  pervade  Wales,  which  lies  in  your  neighborhood? 
or  than  Chester  and  Durham,  surrounded  by  abundance 
of  representation  that  is  actual  and  palpable  ?  But,  Sir, 
your  ancestors  thought  this  sort  of  virtual  representation, 
however  ample,  to  be  totally  insufficient  for  the  freedom  30 
of  the  inhabitants  of  territories  that  are  so  near  and  com- 
paratively so  inconsiderable.  How  then  can  I  think  it 


KEFAESE.\  TA  T1ON  JMI'RA  CTI  CABLE.  53 

sufficient  for  those  which  are  infinitely  greater  and  in* 
finitely  more  remote? 

88.  You  v,  ill  now,  Sir,  perhaps  imagine  that  I  am  on 
the  point  of  proposing  to  you  a  scheme  for  a  representa- 

5  tion  of  the  colonies  in  Parliament.  Perhaps  I  might  be 
inclined  to  entertain  some  such  thought;  but  a  great 
flood  stops  me  in  my  course.  Opposnit  natura — I  can- 
not remove  the  eternal  barriers  of  the  creation.  The 
thing,  in  that  mode,  I  do  not  know  to  be  possible.  As 

10  I  meddle  with  no  theory,  I  do  not  absolutely  assert  the 
impracticability  of  such  a  representation  :  but  I  do  not 
see  my  way  to  it ;  and  those  who  have  been  more  confi- 
dent have  not  been  more  successful.  However,  the  arm 
of  public  benevolence  is  not  shortened,  and  there  are 

15  often  several  means  to  the  same  end.  What  Nature  has 
disjoined  in  one  way  Wisdom  may  unite  in  another. 
When  we  cannot  give  the  benefit  as  we  would  wish,  let 
us  not  refuse  it  altogether.  If  we  cannot  give  the  prin- 
cipal, let  us  find  a  substitute.  But  how  ?  Where  ?  What 

20  substitute? 

89.  Fortunately  I  am  not  obliged  for  the  ways  and 
means  of  this  substitute  to  tax  my  own  unproductive  in- 
vention.    I  am  not  even  obliged  to  go  to  the  rich  treas- 
ury of  the  fertile  framers  of  imaginary  commonwealths, 

25  not  to  the  Republic  of  Plato,  not  to  the  Utopia  of  More, 
not  to  the  Oceana  of  Harrington.  It  is  before  me;  it 
is  at  my  feet, — 

And  the  rude  swain 
Treads  daily  on  it  with  his  clouted  shoon. 

3°  I  only  wish  you  to  recognize,  for  the  theory,  the  an- 
cient constitutional  policy  of  this  kingdom  with  regard 


54  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

to  representation,  as  that  policy  has  been  declared  in  acts 
of  Parliament ;  and  as  to  the  practice,  to  return  to  that 
mode  which  a  uniform  experience  has  marked  out  to  you 
as  best,  and  in  which  you  walked  with  security,  advan- 
tage and  honor,  until  the  year  1763.  5 

po.  My  resolutions  therefore  mean  to  establish  the 
equity  and  justice  of  a  taxation  of  America  by  grant, 
and  not  by  imposition ;  to  mark  the  legal  competency  of 
the  colony  assemblies  for  the  support  of  their  government 
in  peace  and  for  public  aids  in  time  of  war ;  to  acknowl-  10 
edge  that  this  legal  competency  has  had  a  dutiful  and 
beneficial  exercise ;  and  that  experience  has  shown  the 
benefit  of  their  grants  and  the  futility  of  parliamentary 
taxation  as  a  method  of  supply. 

91.  These  solid  truths  compose  six  fundamental  15 
propositions.  There  are  three  more  resolutions  corollary 
to  these.  If  you  admit  the  first  set,  you  can  hardly  re- 
ject the  others.  But  if  you  admit  the  first,  I  shall  be 
far  from  solicitous  whether  you  accept  or  refuse  the  last. 
I  think  these  six  massive  pillars  will  be  of  strength  suffi-  20 
cient  to  support  the  temple  of  British  concord.  I  have 
no  more  doubt  than  I  entertain  of  my  existence  that,  if 
you  admitted  these,  you  would  command  an  immediate 
peace  and,  with  but  tolerable  future  management,  a  last- 
ing obedience  in  America.  I  am  not  arrogant  in  25 
this  confident  assurance.  The  propositions  are  all 
mere  matters  of  fact ;  and  if  they  are  such  facts  as 
draw  irresistible  conclusions  even  in  the  stating,  this 
is  the  power  of  truth,  and  not  any  management  of 
mine.  30 

p.2.     Sir,  I  shall  open  the  whole  plan  to  you,  together 
with  such  observations  on  the  motions  as  may  tend  to 


TWO  RESOLUTIONS,  55 

illustrate  them  where  they  may  want  explanation.     The 
first  is  a  resolution, — 

That  the  colonies  and  plantations  of  Great  Britain  in  North 
America,  consisting  of  fourteen  separate  governments,  and  con- 
e  taining  two  millions  and  upwards  of  free  inhabitants,  have  not 
had  the  liberty  and  privilege  of  electing  and  sending  any  knights 
and  burgesses,  or  others,  to  represent  them  in  the  high  court  of 
Parliament. 

This  is  a  plain  matter  of  fact,  necessary  to  be  laid  down, 
10  and  (excepting  the  description)  it  is  laid  down  in  the 
language  of  the  constitution ;  it  is  taken  nearly  verbatim 
from  acts  of  Parliament. 

93.  The  second  is  like  unto  the  first, — 

That  the  said  colonies  and  plantations  have  been  liable  to,  and 
bounden  by,  several  subsidies,  payments,  rates  and  taxes,  given 
and  granted  by  Parliament,  though  the  said  colonies  and  planta- 
tions have  not  their  knights  and  burgesses  in  the  said  high  court 
of  Parliament,  of  their  own  election,  to  represent  the  condition  oi 
their  country ;  by  lack  whereof  they  have  been  oftentimes  touched 
20  and  grieved  by  subsidies  given,  granted  and  assented  to,  in  the 
said  court,  in  a  manner  prejudicial  to  the  commonwealth,  quiet- 
ness, rest  and  peace  of  the  subjects  inhabiting  within  the  same. 

94.  Is  this  description  too  hot  or  too  cold,  too  strong 
or  too  weak  ?     Does  it  arrogate  too  much  to  the  supreme 

25  legislature  ?  Does  it  lean  too  much  to  the  claims  of  the 
people  ?  If  it  runs  into  any  of  these  errors,  the  fault  is 
not  mine.  It  is  the  language  of  your  own  ancient  acts 
of  Parliament :  — 

Non  meus  hie  sermo,  sed  quae  praecepit  Ofellus, 
30  Rusticus,  abnormis  sapiens. 

It  is  the  genuine  produce  of  the  ancient,  rustic,  manly, 


56  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

home-bred  sense  of  this  country, — I  did  not  dare  to  rub 
off  a  particle  of  the  venerable  rust  that  rather  adorns 
and  preserves,  than  destroys,  the  metal.  It  would  be  a 
profanation  to  touch  with  a  tool  the  stones  which  con- 
struct the  sacred  altar  of  peace.  I  would  not  violate  5 
with  modern  polish  the  ingenuous  and  noble  roughness 
of  these  truly  constitutional  materials.  Above  all  things, 
I  was  resolved  not  to  be  guilty  of  tampering, — the  odious 
vice  of  restless  and  unstable  minds.  I  put  my  foot  in 
the  tracks  of  our  forefathers,  where  I  can  neither  wander  10 
nor  stumble.  Determining  to  fix  articles  of  peace,  I  was 
resolved  not  to  be  wise  beyond  what  was  written  ;  I  was 
resolved  to  use  nothing  else  than  the  form  of  sound 
words,  to  let  others  abound  in  their  own  sense,  and  care- 
fully to  abstain  from  all  expressions  of  my  own.  What  15 
the  law  has  said,  I  say.  In  all  things  else  I  am  silent. 
I  have  no  organ  but  for  her  words.  This,  if  it  be  not 
ingenious,  I  am  sure  is  safe. 

95.     There  are  indeed  words  expressive  of  grievance 
in  this  second  resolution,  which  those  who  are  resolved  20 
always  to  be  in  the  right  will  deny  to  contain  matter  of 
fact,  as  applied  to  the  present  case,  although  Parliament 
thought  them  true  with  regard  to  the  counties  of  Ches- 
ter and   Durham.     They  will  deny  that  the  Americans 
were  ever  "touched  and  grieved"  with  the  taxes.     If  25 
they  consider  nothing  in  taxes  but  their  weight  as  pecun- 
iary impositions,  there  might  be  some  pretence  for  this 
denial.     But  men  may  be  sorely  touched  and  deeply 
grieved   in  their  privileges  as  well  as  in  their   purses. 
Men   may  lose  little  in  property  by  the  act  which  takes  30 
away  all  their  freedom.     When  a  man  is  robbed  of  a  trifle 
on  the  highway,  it  is  not  the  twopence  lost  that  consti- 


EVIDENCE  OF  GRIEVANCES.  57 

tutes  the  capital  outrage.  This  is  not  confined  to  privi- 
leges. Even  ancient  indulgences  withdrawn,  without 
offence  on  the  part  of  those  who  enjoyed  such  favors, 
operate  as  grievances.  But  were  the  Americans  then  not 

5  touched  and  grieved  by  the  taxes,  in  some  measure, 
merely  as  taxes  ?  If  so,  why  were  they  almost  all  either 
wholly  repealed  or  exceedingly  reduced?  Were  they 
not  touched  and  grieved  even  by  the  regulating  duties  of 
the  sixth  of  George  the  Second?  Else  why  were  the 

10  duties  first  reduced  to  one-third  in  1764,  and  afterwards 
to  a  third  of  that  third  in  the  year  1766  ?  Were  they  not 
touched  and  grieved  by  the  Stamp  Act?  I  shall  say 
they  were,  until  that  tax  is  revived.  Were  they  not 
touched  and  grieved  by  the  duties  of  1767,  which  were 

15  likewise  repealed,  and  which  Lord  Hillsborough  tells  you 
(for  the  ministry)  were  laid  contrary  to  the  true  principle 
of  commerce  ?  Is  not  the  assurance  given  by  that  noble 
person  to  the  colonies  of  a  resolution  to  lay  no  more 
taxes  on  them,  an  admission  that  taxes  would  touch  and 

20  grieve  them  ?  Is  not  the  resolution  of  the  noble  lord  in 
the  blue  ribbon,  now  standing  on  your  journals,  the 
strongest  of  all  proofs  that  parliamentary  subsidies  really 
touched  and  grieved  them  ?  Else  why  all  these  changes, 
modifications,  repeals,  assurances  and  resolutions  ? 

25      p6.     The  next  proposition  is, — 

That,  from  the  distance  of  the  said  colonies  and  from  other  cir- 
cumstances, no  method  hath  hitherto  been  devised  for  procuring  a 
representation  in  Parliament  for  the  said  colonies. 

This  is  an  assertion  of  a  fact.     I  go  no  further  on  the 
30  paper ;  though  in  my  private  judgment  a  useful  repre- 
sentation is  impossible.     I  am  sure  it  is  net  desired  by 


58  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

them ;  nor  ought  it,  perhaps,  by  us :   but  I  abstain  from 
opinions. 

97.     The  fourth  resolution  is, — 

That  each  of  the  said  colonies  hath  within  itself  a  body,  chosen 
in  part  or  in  the  whole  by  the  freemen,  freeholders  or  other  free  5 
inhabitants  thereof,  commonly  called  the  general  assembly,  or 
general  court ;  with  powers  legally  to  raise,  levy  and  assess,  ac- 
cording to  the  several  usages  of  such  colonies,  duties  and  taxes 
towards  defraying  all  sorts  of  public  services. 

p8.     This  competence  in  the  colony  assemblies  is  cer-  10 
tain.     It  is  proved  by  the  whole  tenor  of  their  acts  of 
supply  in  all  the  assemblies,  in  which  the  constant  style 
of  granting  is,   "An    aid  to  his  Majesty";   and  acts 
granting  to  the  crown  have  regularly  for  near  a  century 
passed  the  public  offices  without  dispute.     Those  who  15 
have  been  pleased  paradoxically  to  deny  this  right,  hold- 
ing that  none  but  the  British  Parliament  can  grant  to  the 
crown,  are  wished  to  look  to  what  is  done,  not  only  in 
the  colonies,  but  in  Ireland,  in  one  uniform,  unbroken 
tenor  every  session.     Sir,  I  am  surprised  that  this  doc-  20 
trine  should  come  from  some  of  the  law  servants  of  the 
crown.     I  say  that  if  the  crown  could  be  responsible,  his 
Majesty — but  certainly  the  ministers,  and  even  these  law 
officers  themselves  through  whose  hands  the  acts  pass, 
biennially  in   Ireland  or  annually  in  the  colonies,  are  in  25 
an  habitual  course  of  committing  impeachable  offences. 
What  habitual  offenders  have  been  all  presidents  of  the 
council,  all  secretaries  of  state,  all  first  lords  of  trade,  all 
attorneys  and  all  solicitors-general  !     However,  they  are 
safe,  as  no  one  impeaches  them  ;  and  there  is  no  ground  30 
of  charge  against  them,  except  in  their  own  unfounded 
theories. 


FIFTH  RESOLUTION.  59 

pp.     The  fifth  resolution  is  also  a  resolution  of  fact, — 

That  the  said  general  assemblies,  general  courts,  or  other  bodies 
legally  qualified  as  aforesaid,  have  at  sundry  times  freely  granted 
several  large  subsidies  and  public  aids  for  his  Majesty's  service,  ac- 
5  cording  to  their  abilities,  when  required  thereto  by  letter  from  one 
of  his  Majesty's  principal  secretaries  of  state  ;  and  that  their  right 
to  grant  the  same  and  their  cheerfulness  and  sufficiency  in  the  said 
grants  have  been  at  sundry  times  acknowledged  by  Parliament. 

To  say  nothing  of  their  great  expenses  in   the  Indian 

10  wars,  and   not  to  take  their  exertion  in  foreign  ones  so 

high  as  the  supplies  in  the  year  1695,  not  to  go  back  to 

their  public  contributions  in  the  year  1710,  I  shall  begin 

to  travel  only  where  the  journals  give  me  light, — resolving 

to  deal  in  nothing  but  fact  authenticated  by  parliamentary 

15  record,  and  to  build  myself  wholly  on  that  solid  basis. 

JOO.     On  the  4th  of  April,  1748,  a  committee  of  this 
House  came  to  the  following  resolution  :  — 

Resolved,  That  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  committee  that  it  is  just 
and  reasonable  that  the  several  provinces  and  colonies  of  Massa- 
20  chusetts  Bay,  New  Hampshire,  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  be 
reimbursed  the  expenses  they  have  been  at  in  taking  and  securing 
to  the  crown  of  Great  Britain  the  island  of  Cape  Breton  and  its 
dependencies. 

101.  These  expenses  were  immense  for  such  colonies. 
25  They  were  above  ^200,000  sterling  :   money  first  raised 

and  advanced  on  their  public  credit. 

102.  On  the  28th  of  January,  1756,  a  message  from 
the  king  came  to  us  to  this  effect :  — 

His  Majesty,  being  sensible  of  the  zeal  and  vigor  with  which 
30  his  faithful  subjects  of  certain  colonies  in  North  America  have  ex- 
erted themselves  in  defence  of  his  Majesty's  just  rights  and  posses 


60  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

sions,  recommends  it  to  this  House  to  take  the  same  into  their  con- 
sideration, and  to  enable  his  Majesty  to  give  them  such  assistance 
as  may  be  a  proper  reward  and  encouragement. 

IOJ.     On  the  3d  of  February,  1756,  the  House  came 
to  a  suitable  resolution,  expressed  in  words  nearly  the  5 
same  as  those  of  the  message ;  but  with  the  further  addi- 
tion that  the  money  then  voted  was  as  an  encouragement 
to  the  colonies  to  exert  themselves  with  vigor.     It  will 
not  be  necessary  to  go  through  all  the  testimonies  which 
your  own  records  have  given  to  the  truth  of  my  resolu-  10 
tions.     I  will  only  refer  you  to  the  places  in  the  journals : — 

Vol.  XXVII.— i6th  and  igth  May,  1757. 

Vol.  XXVIII. — June   1st,    1758;  April  26th  and    5Oth,    1759; 
March  26th  and  3151,  and  April  28th,  1760;  Jan.  Qth  and  2Oth,  1761. 

Vol.  XXIX. — Jan.  22d  and   26th,  1762;  March   I4th  and  I7th,  15 
1763- 

104.     Sir,  here  is  the  repeated  acknowledgment  of  Par- 
liament  that  the  colonies  not  only  gave,  but  gave  to 
satiety.     This   nation   has   formally   acknowledged   two 
things :   first,  that  the  colonies  had  gone  beyond  their  20 
abilities,  Parliament  having  thought  it  necessary  to  reim- 
burse them ;  secondly,  that  they  had    acted  legally  and 
laudably  in  their  grants  of  money  and  their  maintenance 
of  troops,  since  the  compensation  is  expressly  given  as 
reward  and  encouragement.     Reward  is  not  bestowed  for  25 
acts  that  are  unlawful ;  and  encouragement  is  not  held 
out  to  things  that  deserve  reprehension.     My  resolution 
therefore  does  nothing  more  than  collect  into  one  propo- 
sition what   is  scattered   through   your  journals.     I  give 
you  nothing  but  your  own  ;  and  you  cannot  refuse  in  the  30 
gross  what  you   have  so  often  acknowledged   in  detail. 


GRANT  OR  IMPOSITION?  61 

The  admission  of  this,  which  will  be  so  honorable  to 
them  and  to  you,  will  indeed  be  mortal  to  all  the  mis- 
erable stories  by  which  the  passions  of  the  misguided  peo- 
ple have  been  engaged  in  an  unhappy  system.  The  peo- 
5  pie  heard,  indeed,  from  the  beginning  of  these  disputes, 
one  thing  continually  dinned  in  their  ears, — that  reason 
and  justice  demanded  that  the  Americans,  who  paid  no 
taxes,  should  be  compelled  to  contribute.  How  did  that 
fact  of  their  paying  nothing  stand  when  the  taxing  sys- 

10  tern  began  ?  When  Mr.  Grenville  began  to  form  his  sys- 
tem of  American  revenue,  he  stated  in  this  House  that 
the  colonies  were  then  in  debt  two  millions  six  hundred 
thousand  pounds  sterling  money,  and  was  of  opinion  they 
would  discharge  that  debt  in  four  years.  On  this  state, 

15  those  untaxed  people  were  actually  subject  to  the  pay- 
ment of  taxes  to  the  amount  of  six  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  a  year.  In  fact,  however,  Mr.  Grenville  was 
mistaken.  The  funds  given  for  sinking  the  debt  did  not 
prove  quite  so  ample  as  both  the  colonies  and  he  ex- 

20  pected.  The  calculation  was  too  sanguine ;  the  reduc- 
tion was  not  completed  till  some  years  after,  and  at  differ- 
ent times  in  different  colonies.  However,  the  taxes  after 
the  war  continued  too  great  to  bear  any  addition  with 
prudence  or  propriety ;  and  when  the  burdens  imposed 

25  in  consequence  of  former  requisitions  were  discharged, 
our  tone  became  too  high  to  resort  again  to  requisition. 
No  colony  since  that  time  ever  has  had  any  requisition 
whatsoever  made  to  it. 

705.     We  see  the  sense  of  the  crown  and  the  sense 

30  of  Parliament  on  the  productive  nature  of  a  revenue  by 
grant.  Now  search  the  same  journals  for  the  produce 
of  the  revenue  by  imposition.  \Vhere  is  it  ?  Let  us  know 


6a  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

the  volume  and  the  page.  What  is  the  gross,  what  is  the 
net  produce  ?  To  what  service  is  it  applied  ?  How  have 
you  appropriated  its  surplus?  What,  can  none  of  the 
many  skilful  index-makers  that  we  are  now  employing 
find  any  trace  of  it?  Well,  let  them  and  that  rest  to-  5 
gether.  But  are  the  journals,  which  say  nothing  of  the 
revenue,  as  silent  on  the  discontent  ?  Oh,  no  !  a  child 
may  find  it.  It  is  the  melancholy  burden  and  blot  of 
every  page. 

/ 06.     I  think,  then,  I  am,  from  those  journals,  justified  10 
in  the  sixth  and  last  resolution,  which  is, — 

That  it  hath  been  found  by  experience  that  the  manner  of  grant- 
ing the  said  supplies  and  aids  by  the  said  general  assemblies  hath 
been  more  agreeable  to  the  said  colonies,  and  more  beneficial  and 
conducive  to  the  public  service,  than  the  mode  of  giving  and  15 
granting  aids  in  Parliament,  to  be  raised  and  paid  in  the  said 
colonies. 

107.  This  makes  the  whole  of  the  fundamental  part 
of  the  plan.     The  conclusion  is  irresistible.     You  cannot 
say  that  you  were  driven  by  any  necessity  to  an  exercise  20 
of  the  utmost  rights  of  legislature.     You  cannot  assert 
that  you  took  on  yourselves  the  task  of  imposing  colony 
taxes,  from  the  want  of  another  legal  body  that  is  com- 
petent to  the  purpose  of  supplying  the  exigencies  of  the 
state  without   wounding   the  prejudices  of   the  people.  25 
Neither  is  it  true  that  the  body  so  qualified  and  having 
that  competence  had  neglected  the  duty. 

108.  The  question  now,  on  all  this  accumulated  mat- 
ter, is, — whether  you  will  choose  to  abide  by  a  profitable 
experience  or  a  mischievous  theory ;  whether  you  choose  30 
to  build  on  imagination  or  fact ;  whether  you  prefer  en- 


FIRST  COR  OLLAR  Y  RE  SOL  UT1ON.  63 

joyment  or  hope ;  satisfaction  in  your  subjects  or  discon- 
tent ? 

/op.  If  these  propositions  are  accepted,  everything 
which  has  been  made  to  enforce  a  contrary  system  must, 
5  I  take  it  for  granted,  fall  along  with  it.  On  that  ground 
I  have  drawn  the  following  resolution,  which,  when  it 
comes  to  be  moved,  will  naturally  be  divided  in  a  proper 
manner: — 

That  it  may  be  proper  to  repeal  an  act  made  in  the  seventh  year 

10  of  the  reign  of  his  present  Majesty,  entitled,  "  An  act  for  grant- 
ing certain  duties  in  the  British  colonies  and  plantations  in 
America ;  for  allowing  a  drawback  of  the  duties  of  customs  upon 
the  exportation  from  this  kingdom,  of  coffee  and  cocoanuts  of  the 
produce  of  the  said  colonies  or  plantations ;  for  discontinuing  the 

15  drawbacks  payable  on  China  earthenware  exported  to  America; 
and  for  more  effectually  preventing  the  clandestine  running  of 
goods  in  the  said  colonies  and  plantations." — And  that  it  may  be 
proper  to  repeal  an  act  made  in  the  fourteenth  year  of  the  reign 
of  his  present  Majesty,  entitled,  "  An  act  to  discontinue,  in  such 

20  manner  and  for  such  time  as  are  therein  mentioned,  the  landing 
and  discharging,  lading  or  shipping,  of  goods,  wares  and  merchan- 
dise, at  the  town  and  within  the  harbor  of  Boston,  in  the  province 
of  Massachusetts  Bay,  in  North  America." — And  that  it  may  be 
proper  to  repeal  an  act  made  in  the  fourteenth  year  of  the  reign 

25  of  his  present  Majesty,  entitled,  "  An  act  for  the  impartial  admin- 
istration of  justice  in  the  cases  of  persons  questioned  for  any  acts 
done  by  them  in  the  execution  of  the  law,  or  for  the  suppression 
of  riots  and  tumults,  in  the  province  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  in  New 
England." — And  that  it  may  be  proper  to  repeal  an  act  made  in 

30  the  fourteenth  year  of  the  reign  of  his  present  Majesty,  entitled, 
"  An  act  for  the  better  regulating  the  government  of  the  province 
of  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  in  New  England." — And  also,  that  it 
may  be  proper  to  explain  and  amend  an  act  made  in  the  thirty-fifth 
year  of  the  reign  of  King  Henry  the  Eighth,  entitled,  "  An  act  for 

3c  the  trial  of  treasons  committed  out  of  the  king's  dominions." 


64  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA, 

1 IO.  I  wish,  Sir,  to  repeal  the  Boston  Port  Bill,  be- 
cause (independently  of  the  dangerous  precedent  of  sus- 
pending the  rights  of  the  subject  during  the  king's 
pleasure)  it  was  passed,  as  I  apprehend,  with  less 
regularity  and  on  more  partial  principles  than  it  ought.  5 
The  corporation  of  Boston  was  not  heard  before  it  was 
condemned.  Other  towns,  full  as  guilty  as  she  was,  have 
not  had  their  ports  blocked  up.  Even  the  Restrain- 
ing Bill  of  the  present  session  does  not  go  to  the 
length  of  the  Boston  Port  Act.  The  same  ideas  of  10 
prudence  which  induced  you  not  to  extend  equal  punish- 
ment to  equal  guilt,  even  when  you  were  punishing, 
induced  me,  who  mean  not  to  chastise  but  to  reconcile, 
to  be  satisfied  with  the  punishment  already  partially 
inflicted.  15 

///.  Ideas  of  prudence  and  accommodation  to  cir- 
cumstances prevent  you  from  taking  away  the  charters 
of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  as  you  have  taken 
away  that  of  Massachusetts  Colony,  though  the  crown 
has  far  less  power  in  the  two  former  provinces  than  it  20 
enjoyed  in  the  latter,  and  though  the  abuses  have  been 
full  as  great  and  as  flagrant  in  the  exempted  as  in  the 
punished.  The  same  reasons  of  prudence  and  accommo- 
dation have  weight  with  me  in  restoring  the  charter  of 
Massachusetts  Bay.  Besides,  Sir,  the  act  which  changes  25 
the  charter  of  Massachusetts  is  in  many  particulars  so 
exceptionable  that,  if  I  did  not  wish  absolutely  to  repeal,  I 
would  by  all  means  desire  to  alter  it,  as  several  of  its 
provisions  tend  to  the  subversion  of  all  public  and  private 
justice.  Such,  among  others,  is  the  power  in  the  gov-  30 
ernor  to  change  the  sheriff  at  his  pleasure,  and  to  make 
a  new  returning  officer  for  every  special  cause.  It  is 


SECOND  COROLLARY  RESOLUTION.  65 

shameful  to  behold  such  a  regulation  standing  among 
English  laws. 

112.  The  act  for  bringing  persons  accused  of  com- 
mitting murder  under  the  orders  of  government  to 
5  England  for  trial  is  but  temporary.  That  act  has 
calculated  the  probable  duration  of  our  quarrel  with  the 
colonies,  and  is  accommodated  to  that  supposed  duration. 
I  would  hasten  the  happy  moment  of  reconciliation ;  and 
therefore  must,  on  my  principle,  get  rid  of  that  most 

10  justly  obnoxious  act. 

/  ij.  The  act  of  Henry  the  Eighth  for  the  trial  of 
treasons  I  do  not  mean  to  take  away,  but  to  confine  it  to 
its  proper  bounds  and  original  intention ;  to  make  it 
expressly  for  trial  of  treasons  (and  the  greatest  treasons 

15  may  be  committed)  in  places  where  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
crown  does  not  extend. 

114.  Having  guarded  the  privileges  of  local  legis- 
lature, I  would  next  secure  to  the  colonies  a  fair  and 
unbiased  judicature;  for  which  purpose,  Sir,  I  propose 

.20  the  following  resolution  : — 


That,  from  the  time  when  the  general  assembly,  or  general 
court,  of  any  colony  or  plantation  in  North  America  shall  have 
appointed  by  act  of  assembly  duly  confirmed,  a  settled  salary  to 
the  offices  of  the  chief  justice  and  other  judges  of  the  superior 

25  court,  it  may  be  proper  that  the  said  chief  justice  and  other  judges 
of  the  superior  courts  of  such  colony  shall  hold  his  and  their  office 
and  offices  during  their  good  behavior,  and  shall  not  be  removed 
therefrom  but  when  the  said  removal  shall  be  adjudged  by  his 
Majesty  in  council,  upon  a  hearing  on  complaint  from  the  general 

30  assembly,  or  on  a  complaint  from  the  governor  or  council  or  the 
house  of  representatives,  severally,  of  the  colony  in  which  the  said 
chief  justice  and  other  judges  have  exercised  the  said  offices. 


66  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

7/5.     The   next   resolution   relates  to  the  courts  of 
admiralty.     It  is  this  : — 

That  it  may  be  proper  to  regulate  the  courts  of  admiralty  or 
vice-admiralty  authorized  by  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  the  fourth  of 
George  the  Third,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  the  same  more  5 
commodious  to  those  who  sue  or  are  sued  in  the  said  courts;  and 
to  provide  for  the  more  decent  maintenance  of  the  judges  in  the 
same. 

Il6.  These  courts  I  do  not  wish  to  take  away:  they 
are  in  themselves  proper  establishments.  This  court  is  10 
one  of  the  capital  securities  of  the  Act  of  Navigation. 
The  extent  of  its  jurisdiction,  indeed,  has  been  increased ; 
but  this  is  altogether  as  proper,  and  is  indeed  on 
many  accounts  more  eligible,  where  new  powers  were 
wanted,  than  a  court  absolutely  new.  But  courts  incom-  15 
modiously  situated  in  effect  deny  justice ;  and  a  court 
partaking  in  the  fruits  of  its  own  condemnation  is  a 
robber.  The  Congress  complain,  and  complain  justly, 
of  this  grievance. 

7/7.     These  are  the  three  consequential  propositions.  2c 
I  have  thought  of  two  or  three  more ;    but  they  come 
rather  too  near  detail  and  to  the  province  of  executive 
government,  which  I  wish  Parliament  always  to  superin- 
tend, never  to  assume.     If  the  first  six  are  granted,  con- 
gruity  will  carry  the  latter  three.     If  not,  the  things  that  25 
remain  unrepealed  will  be,  I  hope,  rather  unseemly  in- 
cumbrances  on  the  building  than  very  materially  detri- 
mental to  its  strength  and  stability. 

/ 18.     Here,  Sir,  I  should  close;  but  I  plainly  perceive 
some  objections  remain,  which   I  ought,  if  possible,  to  30 
remove.     The    first  will    be   that,   in   resorting   to   the 


SANCTION  FOR  RESOLUTIONS.  67 

doctrine  of  our  ancestors  as  contained  in  the  preamble  to 
the  Chester  Act,  I  prove  too  much ;  that  the  grievance 
from  a  want  of  representation,  stated  in  that  preamble, 
goes  to  the  whole  of  legislation  as  well  as  to  taxation ; 
5  and  that  the  colonies,  grounding  themselves  upon  that 
doctrine,  will  apply  it  to  all  parts  of  legislative  authority. 
/  /p.  To  this  objection,  with  all  possible  deference  and 
humility,  and  wishing  as  little  as  any  man  living  to  im- 
pair the  smallest  particle  of  our  supreme  authority,  I 

10  answer  that  the  words  are  the  words  of  Parliament,  and 
not  mine ;  and  that  all  false  and  inconclusive  inferences 
drawn  from  them  are  not  mine,  for  I  heartily  disclaim 
any  such  inference.  I  have  chosen  the  words  of  an  act 
of  Parliament  which  Mr.  Grenville,  surely  a  tolerably 

>S  zealous  and  very  judicious  advocate  for  the  sovereignty  of 
Parliament,  formerly  moved  to  have  read  at  your  table  in 
confirmation  of  his  tenets.  It  is  true  that  Lord  Chatham 
considered  these  preambles  as  declaring  strongly  in  favor 
of  his  opinions.  He  was  a  no  less  powerful  advocate  for 

20  the  privileges  of  the  Americans.  Ought  I  not  from 
hence  to  presume  that  these  preambles  are  as  favorable  as 
possible  to  both,  when  properly  understood, — favorable 
both  to  the  rights  of  Parliament  and  to  the  privilege  of 
the  dependencies  of  this  crown  ?  But,  Sir,  the  object  of 

25  grievance  in  my  resolution  I  have  not  taken  from  the 
Chester,  but  from  the  Durham  Act,  which  confines  the 
hardship  of  want  of  representation  to  the  case  of  sub- 
sidies, and  which  therefore  falls  in  exactly  with  the  case 
of  the  colonies.  But  whether  the  unrepresented  counties 

30  were  de  jure  or  de  facto  bound,  the  preambles  do  not  ac- 
curately distinguish;  nor  indeed  was  it  necessary;  for 
whether  de  jure  or  de  facto,  the  legislature  thought  the 


68  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

exercise  of  the  power  of  taxing,  as  of  right  or  as  of  fact 
without  right,  equally  a  grievance  and  equally  oppressive. 
120.  I  do  not  know  that  the  colonies  have,  in  any 
general  way  or  in  any  cool  hour,  gone  much  beyond  the 
demand  of  immunity  in  relation  to  taxes.  It  is  not  fair  5 
to  judge  of  the  temper  or  disposition  of  any  man  or  any 
set  of  men,  when  they  are  composed  and  at  rest,  from 
their  conduct  or  their  expressions  in  a  state  of  disturb- 
ance and  irritation.  It  is,  besides,  a  very  great  mistake  to 
imagine  that  mankind  follow  up  practically  any  speculative  10 
principle,  either  of  government  or  of  freedom,  as  far  as  it 
will  go  in  argument  and  logical  illation.  We  Englishmen 
stop  very  short  of  the  principles  upon  which  we  support  any 
given  part  of  our  Constitution,  or  even  the  whole  of  it 
together.  I  could  easily,  if  I  had  not  already  tired  you,  15 
give  you  very  striking  and  convincing  instances  of  it. 
This  is  nothing  but  what  is  natural  and  proper.  All 
government,  indeed  every  human  benefit  and  enjoyment, 
every  virtue,  and  every  prudent  act,  is  founded  on  com- 
promise and  barter.  We  balance  inconveniences ;  we  20 
give  and  take ;  we  remit  some  rights  that  we  may  enjoy 
others ;  and  we  choose  rather  to  be  happy  citizens  than 
subtle  disputants.  As  we  must  give  away  some  natural 
liberty  to  enjoy  civil  advantages,  so  we  must  sacrifice 
some  civil  liberties  for  the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  25 
the  communion  and  fellowship  of  a  great  empire.  But  in 
all  fair  dealings  the  thing  bought  must  bear  some  pro- 
portion to  the  purchase  paid.  None  will  barter  away  the 
immediate  jewel  of  his  soul.  Though  a  great  house  is 
apt  to  make  slaves  haughty,  yet  it  is  purchasing  a  part  of  30 
the  artificial  importance  of  a  great  empire  too  dear  to  pay 
for  it  all  essential  rights  and  all  the  intrinsic  dignity  of 


INDULGENCE    WILL   CURE  REBELLION.         69 

human  nature.  None  of  us  who  would  not  risk  his  life 
rather  than  fall  under  a  government  purely  arbitrary. 
But  although  there  are  some  amongst  us  who  think  our 
Constitution  wants  many  improvements  to  make  it  a  com- 
5  plete  system  of  liberty,  perhaps  none  who  are  of  that 
opinion  would  think  it  right  to  aim  at  such  improvement 
by  disturbing  his  country  and  risking  everything  that  is 
dear  to  him.  In  every  arduous  enterprise  we  consider 
what  we  are  to  lose  as  well  as  what  we  are  to  gain  ;  and 

10  the  more  and  better  stake  of  liberty  every  people  possess, 
the  less  they  will  hazard  in  a  vain  attempt  to  make  it 
more.  These  are  the  cords  of  man.  Man  acts  from 
adequate  motives  relative  to  his  interest,  and  not  on 
metaphysical  speculations.  Aristotle,  the  great  master  of 

15  reasoning,  cautions  us,  and  with  great  weight  and 
propriety,  against  this  species  of  delusive  geometrical  ac- 
curacy in  moral  arguments,  as  the  most  fallacious  of  all 
sophistry. 

727.     The  Americans  will  have  no  interest  contrary  to 

20  the  grandeur  and  glory  of  England,  when  they  are  not 
oppressed  by  the  weight  of  it ;  and  they  will  rather  be 
inclined  to  respect  the  acts  of  a  superintending  legislature, 
when  they  see  them  the  acts  of  that  power  which  is  itself 
the  security,  not  the  rival,  of  their  secondary  impor- 

25  tance.  In  this  assurance  my  mind  most  perfectly  ac- 
quiesces ;  and  I  confess  I  feel  not  the  least  alarm  from  the 
discontents  which  are  to  arise  from  putting  people  at  their 
ease  ;  nor  do  I  apprehend  the  destruction  of  this  empire 
from  giving,  by  an  act  of  free  grace  and  indulgence,  to 

30  two  millions  of  my  fellow-citizens,  some  share  of  those 
rights  upon  which  I  have  always  been  taught  to  value 
myself. 


70  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

122.     It  is  said,  indeed,  that  this  power  of  granting, 
vested  in  American  assemblies,  would  dissolve  the  unity 
of  the   empire,    which  was   preserved  entire,    although 
Wales    and    Chester   and    Durham   were   added    to   it. 
Truly,    Mr.    Speaker,   I  do  not  know  what  this  unity  5 
means ;  nor  has  it  ever  been  heard  of,  that  I  know,  in 
the  constitutional  policy  of  this  country.     The  very  idea 
of  subordination  of  parts  excludes  this  notion  of  simple 
and  undivided  unity.     England  is  the  head,  but  she  is 
not  the  head  and  the  members  too.     Ireland  has  ever  10 
had  from  the  beginning  a  separate,  but  not  an  independ- 
ent, legislature,  which,   far  from  distracting,   promoted 
the  union  of  the  whole.     Everything  was  sweetly  and 
harmoniously  disposed  through  both  islands  for  the  con- 
servation of  English  dominion  and  the  communication  of  15 
English  liberties.     I  do  not  see  that  the  same  principles 
might  not  be  carried  into  twenty  islands,  and  with  the 
same   good    effect.     This  is   my  model  with  regard  to 
America,  as  far  as  the  internal  circumstances  of  the  two  • 
countries  are  the  same.     I  know  no  other  unity  of  this  20 
empire  than  I  can  draw  from  its  example  during  these 
periods  when  it  seemed  to  my  poor  understanding  more 
united  than  it  is  now,  or  than  it  is  likely  to  be  by  the 
present  methods. 

12).     But  since  I  speak  of  these  methods,  I  recollect,  25 
Mr.  Speaker,  almost  too  late,  that  I  promised,  before  I 
finished,  to  say  something  of  the  proposition  of  the  noble 
lord  on  the  floor,  which  has  been  so  lately  received,  and 
stands  on  your  journals.     I  must  be  deeply  concerned 
whenever  it  is  my  misfortune  to  continue  a  difference  30 
with  the  majority  of  this  House.     But  as  the  reasons  for 
that  difference  are  my  apology  for  thus  troubling  you, 


£  VI LS  OF  RANSOM  BY  AUCTION.  71 

suffer  me  to  state  them  in  a  very  few  words.  I  shall 
compress  them  into  as  small  a  body  as  I  possibly  can, 
having  already  debated  that  matter  at  large  when  the 
question  was  before  the  committee. 

5  124.  First,  then,  I  cannot  admit  that  proposition  of 
a  ransom  by  auction,  because  it  is  a  mere  project.  It  is 
a  thing  new,  unheard  of,  supported  by  no  experience, 
justified  by  no  analogy,  without  example  of  our  ancestors 
or  root  in  the  Constitution.  It  is  neither  regular  parlia- 
10  mentary  taxation  nor  colony  grant.  Experimentum  in 
corpore  vili  is  a  good  rule,  which  will  ever  make  me 
adverse  to  any  trial  of  experiments  on  what  is  certainly 
the  most  valuable  of  all  subjects, — the  peace  of  this 
empire. 

15  725.  Secondly,  it  is  an  experiment  which  must  be 
fatal  in  the  end  to  our  Constitution.  For  what  is  it  but  a 
scheme  for  taxing  the  colonies  in  the  antechamber  of  the 
noble  lord  and  his  successors  ?  To  settle  the  quotas  and 
proportions  in  this  House  is  clearly  impossible.  You, 

.o  Sir,  may  flatter  yourself  you  shall  sit  a  state  auctioneer 
with  your  hammer  in  your  hand,  and  knock  down  to 
each  colony  as  it  bids.  But  to  settle  (on  the  plan  laid 
down  by  the  noble  lord)  the  true  proportional  payment 
for  four  or  five  and  twenty  governments,  according  to  the 

5  absolute  and  the  relative  wealth  of  each,  and  according 
to  the  British  proportion  of  wealth  and  burden,  is  a  wild 
and  chimerical  notion.  This  new  taxation  must  there- 
fore come  in  by  the  back  door  of  the  Constitution. 
Each  quota  must  be  brought  to  this  House  ready 

o  formed.  You  can  neither  add  nor  alter.  You  must 
register  it.  You  can  do  nothing  further.  For  on  what 
grounds  can  you  deliberate  either  before  or  after  the 


73  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

proposition  ?  You  cannot  hear  the  counsel  for  all  these 
provinces,  quarrelling  each  on  its  own  quantity  of  pay- 
ment and  its  proportion  to  others.  If  you  should  at- 
tempt it,  the  committee  of  provincial  ways  and  means, 
or  by  whatever  other  name  it  will  delight  to  be  called,  5 
must  swallow  up  all  the  time  of  Parliament. 

126.  Thirdly,  it  does  not  give  satisfaction  to  the 
complaint  of  the  colonies.  They  complain  that  they  are 
taxed  without  their  consent.;  you  answer  that  you  will 
fix  the  sum  at  which  they  shall  be  taxed.  That  is,  you  10 
give  them  the  very  grievance  for  the  remedy.  You  tell 
them,  indeed,  that  you  will  leave  the  mode  to  themselves. 
I  really  beg  pardon  ;  it  gives  me  pain  to  mention  it ;  but 
you  must  be  sensible  that  you  will  not  perform  this  part 
of  the  compact.  For  suppose  the  colonies  were  to  lay  15 
the  duties  which  furnished  their  contingent  upon  the  im- 
portation of  your  manufactures,  you  know  you  would 
never  suffer  such  a  tax  to  be  laid.  You  know,  too,  that 
you  would  not  suffer  many  other  modes  of  taxation.  So 
that  when  you  come  to  explain  yourself,  it  will  be  found  20 
that  you  will  neither  leave  to  themselves  the  quantum 
nor  the  mode;  nor  indeed  anything.  The  whole  is 
delusion  from  one  end  to  the  other. 

727.  Fourthly,  this  method  of  ransom  by  auction, 
unless  it  be  universally  accepted,  will  plunge  you  into  25 
great  and  inextricable  difficulties.  In  what  year  of  our 
Lord  are  the  proportions  of  payments  to  be  settled  ?  To 
say  nothing  of  the  impossibility  that  colony  agents  should 
have  general  powers  of  taxing  the  colonies  at  their  dis- 
cretion, consider,  I  implore  you,  that  the  communication  30 
by  special  messages  and  orders  between  these  agents  and 
their  constituents  on  e*ck  variation  of  the  case,  when 


DIFFICULTIES  OF  THE  PROJECT.  73 

the  parties  come  to  contend  together  and  to  dispute  on 
their  relative  proportions,  will  be  a  matter  of  delay, 
perplexity  and  confusion  that  never  can  have  an  end. 

12.8.  If  all  the  colonies  do  not  appear  at  the  outcry, 
5  what  is  the  condition  of  those  assemblies  who  offer,  by 
themselves  or  their  agents,  to  tax  themselves  up  to  your 
ideas  of  their  proportion  ?  The  refractory  colonies  who 
refuse  all  composition  will  remain  taxed  only  to  your  old 
impositions,  which,  however  grievous  in  principle,  are 

10  trifling  as  to  production.  The  obedient  colonies  in  this 
scheme  are  heavily  taxed ;  the  refractory  remain  unbur- 
dened. What  will  you  do?  Will  you  lay  new  and 
heavier  taxes  by  Parliament  on  the  disobedient  ?  Pray 
consider  in  what  way  you  can  do  it.  You  are  perfectly 

15  convinced  that  in  the  way  of  taxing  you  can  do  nothing 
but  at  the  ports.  Now  suppose  it  is  Virginia  that  refuses 
to  appear  at  your  auction,  while  Maryland  and  North 
Carolina  bid  handsomely  for  their  ransom,  and  are  taxed 
to  your  quota,  how  will  you  put  these  colonies  on  a  par  ? 

20  Will  you  tax  the  tobacco  of  Virginia  ?  If  you  do,  you 
give  its  death-wound  to  your  English  revenue  at  home 
and  to  one  of  the  very  greatest  articles  of  your  own 
foreign  trade.  If  you  tax  the  import  of  that  rebellious 
colony,  what  do  you  tax  but  your  own  manufactures  or 

25  the  goods  of  some  other  obedient  and  already  well-taxed 
colony  ?  Who  has  said  one  word  on  this  labyrinth  of 
detail  which  bewilders  you  more  and  more  as  you  enter 
into  it?  Who  has  presented,  who  can  present  you  with 
a  clue  to  lead  you  out  of  it  ?  I  think,  Sir,  it  is  impos- 

30  sible  that  you  should  not  recollect  that  the  colony  bounds 
are  so  implicated  in  one  another  (you  know  it  by  your 
other  experiments  in  the  bill  for  prohibiting  the  New 


74  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

England  fishery)  that  you  can  lay  no  possible  restraints 
on  almost  any  of  them  which  may  not  be  presently 
eluded,  if  you  do  not  confound  the  innocent  with  the 
guilty,  and  burden  those  whom,  upon  every  principle, 
you  ought  to  exonerate.  He  must  be  grossly  ignorant  5 
of  America  who  thinks  that,  without  falling  into  this  con- 
fusion of  all  rules  of  equity  and  policy,  you  can  restrain 
any  single  colony,  especially  Virginia  and  Maryland,  the 
central  and  most  important  of  them  all. 

129.  Let  it  also  be  considered  that,  either  in  the  10 
present  confusion  you  settle  a  permanent  contingent, 
which  will  and  must  be  trifling,  and  then  you  have  no 
effectual  revenue ;  or  you  change  the  quota  at  every 
exigency,  and  then  on  every  new  repartition  you  will 
have  a  new  quarrel. 

/jo.  Reflect  besides,  that  when  you  have  fixed  a 
quota  for  every  colony,  you  have  not  provided  for 
prompt  and  punctual  payment.  Suppose  one,  two,  five, 
ten  years'  arrears.  You  cannot  issue  a  treasury  extent 
against  the  failing  colony.  You  must  make  new  Boston  20 
Port  Bills,  new  restraining  laws,  new  acts  for  dragging 
men  to  England  for  trial.  You  must  send  out  new  fleets, 
new  armies.  All  is  to  begin  again.  From  this  day  for- 
ward the  empire  is  never  to  know  an  hour's  tranquillity. 
An  intestine  fire  will  be  kept  alive  in  the  bowels  of  the  25 
colonies,  which  one  time  or  other  must  consume  this 
whole  empire.  I  allow  indeed  that  the  empire  of  Ger- 
many raises  her  revenue  and  her  troops  by  quotas  and 
contingents;  but  the  revenue  of  the  empire  and  the 
army  of  the  empire  is  the  worst  revenue  and  the  worst 
army  in  the  world. 

IJl.     Instead  of  standing  revenue,  you  will  therefore 


TWO  PLANS  CONTRASTED.  75 

have  a  perpetual  quarrel.  Indeed,  the  noble  lord  who 
proposed  this  project  of  a  ransom  by  auction  seemed 
himself  to  be  of  that  opinion.  His  project  was  rather 
designed  for  breaking  the  union  of  the  colonies  than  for 
5  establishing  a  revenue.  He  confessed  he  apprehended 
that  his  proposal  would  not  be  to  their  taste.  I  say  this 
scheme  of  disunion  seems  to  be  at  the  bottom  of  the  proj- 
ect; for  I  will  not  suspect  that  the  noble  lord  meant 
nothing  but  merely  to  delude  the  nation  by  an  airy 

10  phantom  which  he  never  intended  to  realize.  But  what- 
ever his  views  may  be,  as  I  propose  the  peace  and  union 
of  the  colonies  as  the  very  foundation  of  my  plan,  it  can- 
not accord  with  one  whose  foundation  is  perpetual  dis- 
cord. 

15  1J2.  Compare  the  two.  This  I  offer  to  give  you  is 
plain  and  simple ;  the  other  full  of  perplexed  and  intri- 
cate mazes.  This  is  mild  ;  that  harsh.  This  is  found 
by  experience  effectual  for  its  purposes ;  the  other  is  a 
new  project.  This  is  universal ;  the  other  calculated  for 

20  certain  colonies  only.  This  is  immediate  in  its  concilia- 
tory operation ;  the  other  remote,  contingent,  full  of 
hazard.  Mine  is  what  becomes  the  dignity  of  a  ruling 
people, — gratuitous,  unconditional,  and  not  held  out  as  a 
matter  of  bargain  and  sale.  I  have  done  my  duty  in 

25  proposing  it  to  you.  I  have  indeed  tired  you  by  a  long 
discourse ;  but  this  is  the  misfortune  of  those  to  whose 
influence  nothing  will  be  conceded,  and  who  must  win 
every  inch  of  their  ground  by  argument.  You  have 
heard  me  with  goodness.  May  you  decide  with  wisdom  ! 

30  For  my  part,  I  feel  my  mind  greatly  disburdened  by  what 
I  have  done  to-day.  I  have  been  the  less  fearful  of  try- 
ing your  patience,  because  on  this  subject  I  mean  to  spare 


76  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

it  altogether  in  future.  I  have  this  comfort,  that  inevciy 
stage  of  the  American  affairs  I  have  steadily  opposed  the 
measures  that  have  produced  the  confusion,  and  may 
bring  on  the  destruction,  of  this  empire.  1  now  go  so 
far  as  to  risk  a  proposal  of  my  own.  If  I  cannot  give  5 
peace  to  my  country,  I  give  it  to  my  conscience. 

133.  "But  what,"  says  the  financier,  "  is  peace  to  us 
without  money  ?  Your  plan  gives  us  no  revenue."  No  ! 
But  it  does ;  for  it  secures  to  the  subject  the  power  of 
REFUSAL,  the  first  of  all  revenues.  Experience  is  a  10 
cheat  and  fact  a  liar,  if  this  power  in  the  subject  of  pro- 
portioning his  grant,  or  of  not  granting  at  all,  has  not 
been  found  the  richest  mine  of  revenue  ever  discovered 
by  the  skill  or  by  the  fortune  of  man.  It  does  not  in- 
deed vote  you  ^152,750  us.  z^ths,  nor  any  other  15 
paltry  limited  sum  ;  but  it  gives  the  strong-box  itself,  the 
fund,  the  bank,  from  whence  only  revenues  can  arise 
amongst  a  people  sensible  of  freedom  :  Posita  luditur 
area.  Cannot  you  in  England,  cannot  you  at  this  time 
of  day,  cannot  you,  an  House  of  Commons,  trust  to  the  20 
principle  which  has  raised  so  mighty  a  revenue  and  ac- 
cumulated a  debt  of  near  140  millions  in  this  country  ? 
Is  this  principle  to  be  true  in  England  and  false  every- 
where else?  Is  it  not  true  in  Ireland?  Has  it  not 
hitherto  been  true  in  the  colonies?  Why  should  you  25 
presume  that  in  any  country  a  body  duly  constituted  for 
any  function  will  neglect  to  perform  its  duty  and  abdicate 
its  trust?  Such  a  presumption  would  go  against  all 
governments  in  all  modes.  But  in  truth  this  dread  of 
penury  of  supply  from  a  free  assembly  has  no  foundation  30 
in  nature.  For  first  observe,  that  besides  the  desire 
which  all  men  have  naturally  of  supporting  the  honor  of 


FREEDOM  THE  GREATEST  OF  REVENUES,     77 

their  own  government,  that  sense  of  dignity  and  that 
security  to  property  which  ever  attends  freedom  has  a 
tendency  to  increase  the  stock  of  the  free  community. 
Most  may  be  taken  where  most  is  accumulated.  And 
5  what  is  the  soil  or  climate  where  experience  has  not  uni- 
formly proved  that  the  voluntary  flow  of  heaped-up 
plenty,  bursting  from  the  weight  of  its  own  rich  luxuri- 
ance, has  ever  run  with  a  more  copious  stream  of  revenue 
than  could  be  squeezed  from  the  dry  husks  of  oppressed 

10  indigence  by  the  straining  of  all  the  politic  machinery  in 
the  world  ? 

734  Next,  we  know  that  parties  must  ever  exist  in  a 
free  country.  We  know,  too,  that  the  emulations  of 
such  parties,  their  contradictions,  their  reciprocal  neces- 

15  sities,  their  hopes  and  their  fears,  must  send  them  all  in 
their  turns  to  him  that  holds  the  balance  of  the  state. 
The  parties  are  the  gamesters  ;  but  government  keeps  the 
table,  and  is  sure  to  be  the  winner  in  the  end.  When 
this  game  is  played,  I  really  think  it  is  more  to  be  feared 

20  that  the  people  will  be  exhausted  than  that  government 
will  not  be  supplied.  Whereas,  whatever  is  got  by  acts 
of  absolute  power,  ill  obeyed  because  odious,  or  by  con- 
tracts ill  kept  because  constrained,  will  be  narrow,  feeble, 
uncertain  and  precarious. 

25  Ease  would  retract 

Vows  made  in  pain,  as  violent  and  void. 

135.     I,  for  one,  protest  against  compounding  our  de- 
mands.   I  declare  against  compounding  for  a  poor  limited 
sum  the  immense,  ever-growing,   eternal  debt  which  is 
30  due   to   generous  government  from  protected  freedom. 
And  so  may  I  speed  in  the  great  object  I  propose  to  you, 


78  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

as  I  think  it  would  not  only  be  an  act  of  injustice,  but 
would  be  the  worst  economy  in  the  world,  to  compel  the 
colonies  to  a  sum  certain,  either  in  the  way  of  ransom  or 
in  the  way  of  compulsory  compact. 

136.     But  to  clear  up  my  ideas  on  this  subject, — a  5 
revenue  from  America  transmitted  hither, — do  not  delude 
yourselves  :   you  never  can  receive  it, — no,  not  a  shilling. 
We  have  experience  that  from  remote  countries  it  is  not 
to  be  expected.     If,  when  you  attempted  to  extract  reve- 
nue from  Bengal,  you  were  obliged  to  return  in  loan  what  10 
you  had  taken  in  imposition,  what  can  you  expect  from 
North   America?     For   certainly,   if  ever   there   was   a 
country  qualified  to  produce  wealth,  it  is  India ;  or  an 
institution  for  the  transmission,  it  is  the  East  India  Com- 
pany.    America  has  none  of  these  aptitudes.    If  America  : 
gives  you  taxable  objects  on  which  you  lay  your  duties 
here,  and  gives  you  at  the  same  time  a  surplus  by  a 
foreign  sale  of  her  commodities  to  pay  the  duties  on  these 
objects  which  you  tax  at  home,  she  has  performed  her 
part  to  the  British  revenue.     But  with  regard  to  her  own  20 
internal  establishments,  she  may, — I  doubt  not  she  will, 
— contribute  in  moderation.     I  say  in  moderation;  for 
she  ought  not  to  be  permitted  to  exhaust  herself.     She 
ought  to  be  reserved  to  a  war,  the  weight  of  which,  with 
the  enemies  that  we  are  most  likely  to  have,  must  be  con-  25 
siderable  in  her  quarter  of  the  globe.     There  she  may 
serve  you,  and  serve  you  essentially. 

7^7.     For  that  service,  for  all  service,  whether  of  reve- 
nue, trade  or  empire,  my  trust  is  in  her  interest  in  the  British 
Constitution.     My  hold  of  the  colonies  is  in  the  close  30 
affection  which  grows  from  common  names,  from  kindred 
blood,    from   similar    privileges    and    equal    protection. 


TRUE  NATURE  OF  EMPIRE.  79 

These  are  ties  which,  though  light  as  ai:  are  as  strong  as 
links  of  iron.  Let  the  colonies  always  .eep  the  idea  of 
their  civil  rights  associated  with  your  government, — they 
will  cling  and  grapple  to  you,  and  no  force  under  heaven 

5  will  be  of  power  to  tear  them  from  their  allegiance.  But 
let  it  be  once  understood  that  your  government  may  be 
one  thing  and  their  privileges  another  ;  that  these  two 
things  may  exist  without  any  mutual  relation,  the  cement 
is  gone,  the  cohesion  is  loosened  and  everything  hastens 

10  to  decay  and  dissolution.  As  long  as  you  have  the  wis- 
dom to  keep  the  sovereign  authority  of  this  country  as 
the  sanctuary  of  liberty,  the  sacred  temple  consecrated  to 
our  common  faith,  wherever  the  chosen  race  and  sons  of 
England  worship  freedom,  they  will  turn  their  faces  to- 

15  wards  you.  The  more  they  multiply,  the  more  friends 
you  will  have ;  the  more  ardently  they  love  liberty,  the 
more  perfect  will  be  their  obedience.  Slavery  they  can 
have  anywhere.  It  is  a  weed  that  grows  in  every  soil. 
They  may  have  it  from  Spain  ;  they  may  have  it  from 

20  Prussia.  But  until  you  become  lost  to  all  feeling  of  your 
true  interest  and  your  natural  dignity,  freedom  they  can 
have  from  none  but  you.  This  is  the  commodity  of 
price,  of  which  you  have  the  monopoly.  This  is  the  true 
Act  of  Navigation  which  binds  to  you  the  commerce  of 

25  the  colonies,  and  through  them  secures  to  you  the  wealth 
of  the  world.  Deny  them  this  participation  of  freedom, 
and  you  break  that  sole  bond  which  originally  made  and 
must  still  preserve  the  unity  of  the  empire.  Do  not  en- 
tertain so  weak  an  imagination  as  that  your  registers  and 

30  your  bonds,  your  affidavits  and  your  sufferances,  your 
cockets  and  your  clearances,  are  what  form  the  great 
securities  of  your  commerce.  Do  not  dream  that  your 


8o  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

letters  of  office  and  your  instructions  and  your  suspend- 
ing clauses  are  the  things  that  hold  together  the  great 
^.ontexture  of  the  mysterious  whole.  These  things  do 
"\ot  make  your  government.  Dead  instruments,  passive 
tools  as  they  are,  it  is  the  spirit  of  the  English  commun-  5 
ion  that  gives  all  their  life  and  efficacy  to  them.  It  is  the 
spirit  of  the  English  Constitution,  which,  infused  through 
the  mighty  mass,  pervades,  feeds,  unites,  invigorates, 
vivifies  every  part  of  the  empire,  even  down  to  the  mi- 
nutest member.  10 

Ij8.  Is  it  not  the  same  virtue  which  does  everything 
for  us  here  in  England  ?  Do  you  imagine,  then,  that  it 
is  the  Land  Tax  Act  which  raises  your  revenue?  that  it 
is  the  annual  vote  in  the  Committee  of  Supply  which 
gives  you  your  army?  or  that  it  is  the  Mutiny  Bill  which  15 
inspires  it  with  bravery  and  discipline  ?  No  !  surely  no  ! 
It  is  the  love  of  the  people ;  it  is  their  attachment  to  their 
government,  from  the  sense  of  the  deep  stake  they  have 
in  such  a  glorious  institution,  which  gives  you  your  army 
and  your  navy,  and  infuses  into  both  that  liberal  obedience  20 
without  which  your  army  would  be  a  base  rabble,  and 
your  navy  nothing  but  rotten  timber. 

139.     All  this,  I  know  well  enough,  will  sound  wild 
and  chimerical  to  the  profane  herd  of  those  vulgar  and 
mechanical  politicians  who  have  no  place  among  us, — a  25 
sort  of  people  who  think  that  nothing  exists  but  what  is 
gross  and  material ;  and  who,  therefore,  far  from  being 
qualified  to  be  directors  of  the  great  movement  of  em- 
pire, are  not  fit  to  turn  a  wheel  in  the  machine.     But  to 
men  truly  initiated  and  rightly  taught,  these  ruling  and  30 
master  principles,  which  in  the  opinion  of  such  men  as  I 
have  mentioned  have  no  substantial  existence,  are  in  truth 


SURSUM   CORDAl  81 

everything  and  all  in  all.  '  Magnanimity  in  politics  is  not 
seldom  the  truest  wisdom  ;  and  a  great  empire  and  little 
minds  go  ill  together.  If  we  are  conscious  of  our  station, 
and  glow  with  zeal  to  fill  our  places  as  becomes  our  situa- 

5  tion  and  ourselves,  we  ought  to  auspicate  all  our  public 
proceedings  on  America  with  the  old  warning  of  the 
church,  Sursum  corda  !  We  ought  to  elevate  our  minds 
to  the  greatness  of  that  trust  to  which  the  order  of  Provi- 
dence has  called  us.  By  adverting  to  the  dignity  of  this 

10  high  calling,  our  ancestors  have  turned  a  savage  wilder- 
ness into  a  glorious  empire ;  and  have  made  the  most  ex- 
tensive, and  the  only  honorable  conquests,  not  by  de- 
stroying, but  by  promoting  the  wealth,  the  number,  the 
happiness  of  the  human  race.  Let  us  get  an  American 

15  revenue  as  we  have  got  an  American  empire.  English 
privileges  have  made  it  all  that  it  is  j  English  privileges 
alone  will  make  it  all  it  can  bej 

140.     In  full  confidence  of  this  unalterable  truth,  I 
now  {quod  felix  faustumque  sit  /)  lay  the  first  stone  of 

20  the  Temple  of  Peace ;  and  I  move  you, — 

That  the  colonies  and  plantations  of  Great  Britain  in  North 
America,  consisting  of  fourteen  separate  governments,  and  con- 
taining two  millions  and  upwards  of  free  inhabitants,  have  not  had 
the  liberty  and  privilege  of  electing  and  sending  any  knights  and 
25  burgesses,  or  others,  to  represent  them  in  the  high  court  of  Parlia- 
ment. 


Upon  this  resolution  the  previous  question  was  put  and 
carried  :  for  the  previous  question,  270;  against  it,  78. 

As  the  propositions  were  opened  separately  in  the  body 

30  of  the  speech,  the  reader  perhaps  may  wish  to  see  the 

whole  of  them  together  in  the  form  in  which  they  were 


82  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

moved  for.  The  first  four  motions  and  the  last  had  the 
previous  question  put  on  them.  The  others  were  nega- 
tived. The  words  in  italics  were,  by  an  amendment  that 
was  carried,  left  out  of  the  motion  ;  which  will  appear  in 
the  journals,  though  it  is  not  the  practice  to  insert  such  5 
amendments  in  the  votes. 

Moved, 

That  the  colonies  and  plantations  of  Great  Britain  in  North 
America,  consisting  of  fourteen  separate  governments,  and  con- 
taining two  millions  and  upwards  of  free  inhabitants,  have  not  had  IO 
the  liberty  and  privilege  of  electing  and  sending  any  knights  and 
burgesses,  or  others,  to  represent  them  in  the  high  court  of  Parlia- 
ment. 

That  the  said  colonies  and  plantations  have  been  liable  to,  and 
bounden  by,  several  subsidies,  payments,  rates  and  taxes,  given  15 
and  granted  by  Parliament,  though  the  said  colonies  and  planta- 
tions have  not  their  knights  and  burgesses  in  the  said  high  court 
of  Parliament,  of  their  own  election,  to  represent  the  condition  of 
their  country ;  by  lack  -whereof  they  have  been  oftentimes  touched 
and  grieved  by  subsidies  given,  granted  and  assented  to,  in  the  said  to 
court,  in  a  manner  prejudicial  to  the  commonwealth,  quietness,  rest 
and  peace  of  the  subjects  inhabiting  within  the  same. 

That,  from  the  distance  of  the  said  colonies  and  from  other 
circumstances,  no  method  hath  hitherto  been  devised  for  procuring 
a  representation  in  Parliament  for  the  said  colonies.  25 

That  each  of  the  said  colonies  hath  within  itself  a  body,  chosen 
in  part  or  in  the  whole  by  the  freemen,  freeholders  or  other  free 
inhabitants  thereof,  commonly  called  the  general  assembly,  or  gen- 
eral court  ;  with  powers  legally  to  raise,  levy  and  assess,  according 
to  the  several  usages  of  such  colonies,  duties  and  taxes  towards  30 
defraying  all  sorts  of  public  services. 

That  the  said  general  assemblies,  general  courts,  or  other  bodies 
legally  qualified  as  aforesaid,  have  at  sundry  times  freely  granted 


THE  RESOLUTIONS.  83 

several  large  subsidies  and  public  aids  for  his  Majesty's  service, 
according  to  their  abilities,  when  required  thereto  by  letter  from 
one  of  his  Majesty's  principal  secretaries  of  state ;  and  that  their 
right  to  grant  the  same  and  their  cheerfulness  and  sufficiency  in  the 
5  said  grants  have  been  at  sundry  times  acknowledged  by  Parliament. 

That  it  hath  been  found  by  experience  that  the  manner  of  grant- 
ing the  said  supplies  and  aids  by  the  said  general  assemblies  hath 
been  more  agreeable  to  the  said  colonies,  and  more  beneficial  and 
conducive  to  the  public  service,  than  the  mode  of  giving  and  grant- 
IO  ing  aids  in  Parliament,  to  be  raised  and  paid  in  the  said  colonies. 

That  it  may  be  proper  to  repeal  an  act  made  in  the  seventh  year 
of  the  reign  of  his  present  Majesty,  entitled,  "  An  act  for  granting 
certain  duties  in  the  British  colonies  and  plantations  in  America; 
for  allowing  a  drawback  of  the  duties  of  customs  upon  the  expor- 
ie  tation  from  this  kingdom,  of  coffee  and  cocoanuts  of  the  produce 
of  the  said  colonies  or  plantations;  for  discontinuing  the  draw- 
backs payable  on  China  earthenware  exported  to  America ;  and 
for  more  effectually  preventing  the  clandestine  running  of  goods  in 
the  said  colonies  and  plantations." 

20  That  it  may  be  proper  to  repeal  an  act  made  in  the  fourteenth 
year  of  the  reign  of  his  present  Majesty,  entitled,  "  An  act  to  discon- 
tinue, in  such  manner  and  for  such  time  as  are  therein  mentioned, 
the  landing  and  discharging,  lading  or  shipping,  of  goods,  wares 
and  merchandise,  at  the  town  and  within  the  harbor  of  Boston,  in 

«  the  province  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  in  North  America." 

That  it  may  be  proper  to  repeal  an  act  made  in  the  fourteenth 
year  of  the  reign  of  his  present  Majesty,  entitled,  "  An  act  for  the 
impartial  administration  of  justice  in  the  cases  of  persons  questioned 
for  any  acts  done  by  them  in  the  execution  of  the  law,  or  for  the 
3O  suppression  of  riots  and  tumults,  in  the  province  of  Massachusetts 
Bay,  in  New  England." 

That  it  may  be  proper  to  repeal  an  act  made  in  the  fourteenth 


84  ON  CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA. 

year  of  the  reign  of  his  present  Majesty,  entitled,  "  An  act  for  the 
better  regulating  the  government  of  the  province  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  in  New  England." 

That  it  may  be  proper  to  explain  and  amend  an  act  made  in  the 
thirty-fifth  year  of  the  reign  of  King  Henry  the  Eighth,  entitled,  3 
"  An  act  for  the  trial  of  treasons  committed  out  of  the  king's 
dominions." 

That  from  the  time  when  the  general  assembly,  or  general  court, 
of  any  colony  or  plantation  in  North  America  shall  have  appointed 
by  act  of  assembly  duly  confirmed,  a  settled  salary  to  the  offices  of  10 
the  chief  justice  and  other  judges  of  the  superior  court,  it  may  be 
proper  that  the  said  chief  justice  and  other  judges  of  the  superior 
courts  of  such  colony  shall  hold  his  and  their  office  and  offices 
during  their  good  behavior,  and  shall  not  be  removed  therefrom 
but  when  the  said  removal  shall  be  adjudged  by  his  Majesty  in  15 
council,  upon  a  hearing  on  complaint  from  the  general  assembly, 
or  on  a  complaint  from  the  governor  or  council  or  the  house  of  rep- 
resentatives, severally,  of  the  colony  in  which  the  said  chief  justice 
and  other  judges  have  exercised  the  said  offices. 

That  it  may  be  proper  to  regulate  the  courts  of  admiralty  or  20 
vice-admiralty  authorized  by  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  the  fourth  of 
George  the  Third,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  the  same  more 
commodious  to  those  who  sue  or  are  sued  in  the  said  courts;  and 
to  provide  for  the  more  decent  maintenance  of  the  judges  in  the 
.  same.  2$ 


NOTES  AND  COMMENT 


NOTES  AND  COMMENT 

(The  heavy  numerals  refer  to  pages;  the  light  ones  to  lines) 

i,  i.  Austerity  of  the  Chair  is  a  formal  expression,  having 
no  personal  reference  to  Sir  Fletcher  Norton,  who  was  Speaker, 
— a  man  petulant  rather  than  austere. 

i,  3.  Human  frailty.  This  is  one  of  many  examples  in  the 
speech  of  humility  assumed  for  the  sake  of  oratorical  effect. 

Oratorical  egotism — the  assumption  of  humility  or  its  opposite, 
complacency,  in  addressing  an  audience — was  characteristic  of  De- 
mosthenes and  Cicero.  Burke  and  other  British  orators  of  what 
might  now  be  called  the  "old  school,"  were  proud  to  adopt  what 
they  regarded  as  an  elegant  and  useful  practice.  Cicero  was,  in  a 
special  sense,  Burke's  model. 

i,  8.  To  my  infinite  surprise,  etc.,  is  evidence  that  the  in- 
troductory paragraph  was  unpremeditated.  The  speech  as  a  whole 
was  extempore  in  form,  though  of  course  in  substance  it  had  been 
most  carefully  studied.  It  was  written  out  and  edited  by  Burke 
himself  for  publication. 

The  grand  penal  bill.  Burke's  name  for  a  measure  which  had 
been  proposed  by  Lord  North,  February  10,  1775,  six  weeks  before 
Burke  delivered  his  present  speech.  The  New  England  colonies, 
especially  Massachusetts,  were  to  be  punished  for  the  obstinate  op- 
position they  had  shown  towards  England's  recent  efforts  to  regu- 
late their  commerce.  England  had  insisted  that  she  had  the  right 
to  control  the  importation  of  tea  into  the  colonies.  The  opposition 
aroused  by  this  claim  was  intensified  by  other  acts  of  Parliament, 
such  as  quartering  troops  upon  the  colonists,  interfering  with  the 
judiciary  of  Massachusetts,  and  annulling  her  charter.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  colonists  were  so  adroit  in  eluding  the  grasp  of  Par- 
liament, and  so  united  in  an  increasingly  bold  course  of  opposition, 

87 


88  NOTES  AND  COMMENT. 

that  the  king  and  his  chief  adviser  thought  it  now  high  time  to  ad- 
minister severe  and  sweeping  discipline.  They  proposed  by  this 
grand  penal  bill,  to  confine  the  trade  of  the  New  England  colonies 
to  Great  Britain,  Ireland  and  the  British  West  Indies;  and  to  re- 
strict their  fishing  privileges  on  the  Grand  Banks. 

Throughout  the  six  weeks  preceding  the  Speech  on  Conciliation, 
Burke  had  fought  this  bill  on  two  grounds, — justice  to  the  colonies 
and  profit  to  English  trade  and  revenue.  When  Lord  North  ar- 
gued that  New  England  must  be  made  obedient,  Burke  answered 
that  this  bill  was  an  absurd  means  to  such  an  end,  for  at  best  it 
would  preserve  only  the  forms  of  government,  and  these  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  liberty  and  contentment  of  the  governed.  Burke 
also  showed  that  to  suspend  the  trade  of  the  colonists  would  render 
them  unable  to  pay  their  debts  to  English  creditors.  Finally,  on 
the  8th  of  May,  protesting  against  the  passage  of  the  bill,  he  re- 
marked in  sarcastic  desperation, — This  bill  "does  not  mean  to 
shed  blood;  but  to  suit  some  gentleman's  humanity,  it  only  means 
to  starve  five  hundred  thousand  people." 

The  Speech  on  Conciliation  is  really  a  part  of  Burke's  fight 
against  this  "grand  penal  bill,"  and  another  similar  piece  of  Lord 
North's  statesmanship.  The  peculiar  strength  of  Burke's  oppo- 
sition consists  in  the  wisdom  of  the  policy  he  proposed  as  substi- 
tute for  that  which  he  attacked.  But,  though  it  was  not  yet  known 
in  England,  neither  wise  nor  foolish  legislation  was  of  much  avail 
when  the  penal  bill  was  passed,  for  the  battles  of  Lexington  and 
Concord  had  been  fought  three  weeks  before. 

i,  10.  Returned  to  us  from  the  other  house:  with  the  re- 
quest to  amend  it  so  as  to  include  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Ma- 
ryland, Virginia  and  South  Carolina. 

1,  1 6.  By  the  return,  etc.    Burke  tries  to  persuade  an  indif- 
ferent house  to  face  the  American  problem  hi  a  serious  spirit 

2,  5.    When    I   first,  etc.:  in  1766,  in  time  to  help  repeal 
the  Stamp  Act. 

2,  12.  To  take  more  than  common  pains,  etc.  Burke  had 
really  labored  to  learn  all  there  was  to  be  known  about  America, 
with  a  success  that  is  evident  on  every  page  of  this  speech. 

2,  15.    General  policy  of  the  British  Empire.    Burke  wai 


NOTES  AND  COMMENT  89 

the  first  practical  British  statesman  to  formulate  a  system  of  po- 
litical economy  in  its  broadest  sense, — the  principles  of  the  im- 
perial government. 

2,  25.  A  large  majority.  The  Stamp  Act  was  repealed  by  a 
vote  of  275  to  161. 

3,  i .  An  enlarged  view  over  the  vast  area  of  special  interests, 
not  American,  which  were  guarded  by  the  members  of  Parliament. 

3,  1 8.  A  worthy  member:  Mr.  Rose  Fuller,  who  moved  to  re- 
peal the  Tea  Tax,  April  19, 1774,  when  Burke  delivered  his  speech 
on  American  Taxation. 

3,  22.  Our  politics:  of  Burke's  party. 

3,  24/The  public  tribunal:  popular  sentiment,  in  which  alone 
lay  Burke's  hope  of  success. 

4,  15.  Gave  so  far  into,  etc.:   yielded  to  the  extent  of  formu- 
lating resolutions.     Now,  five  months  later,  they  are  produced. 

4,  22.  Disreputably:  with  danger  to  one's  reputation.  Burke 
hopes  to  disarm  prejudice  by  emphasizing  his  hesitancy. 

4,  27.  Paper  government :  theory  severed  from  practice,  such 
as  Locke's  adaptation  of  the  feudal  system  for  the  government  of 
North  Carolina. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  Burke  regarded  his  resolutions  as 
theoretical,  but  that  he  feared  lest  they  should  be  so  regarded  by 
others.  He  hopes  to  inspire  confidence  by  overstating  his  own 
caution. 

5,  14.  Judging  of  what  you  are,  etc.:  a  high  standard  for  the 
best  of  men,  entirely  too  high  for  the  parliament  to  which  Burke 
spoke.     Yet  we  are  not  to  suppose  him  blind  to  their  ignorance  or 
duplicity.     He  overstates  their  merit,  hoping  thus  to  make  them 
rise  towards  his  position.     This  is  a  kind  of  optimism  we  see  prac- 
tised every  day,  and  it  is  certainly  true  that  the  more  good  one 
expects  to  find,  the  more  one  is  likely  to  find. 

The  degree  of  impartial  good  judgment  Burke  ascribes  to  the 
House  is  really  superhuman.  No  legislature  accepts  a  proposi- 
tion solely  because  it  is  reasonable,  or  rejects  one  solely  because  it 
is  futile  or  dangerous.  The  motives  which  actuate  such  bodies  are 
complex,  and  more  or  less  selfish.  Considering  how  unusually 
corrupt  and  stupid  was  the  present  House,  Burke  must  have 


90  NOTES  AND   COMMENT 

smiled  to  himself  as  he  uttered  the  flattering  lines, — "You  will 
see  it  just  as  it  is,  and  you  will  treat  it  just  as  it  deserves." 

5,  25.  The  proposition  is  peace.  Here  is  the  theme  of  the  ora- 
tion. This  paragraph  contains  the  key  to  every  line  of  thought  in 
the  speech.  Note  especially  the  line  of  destructive  argument  im- 
plied in  lines  25-32. 

5,  28.  Universal  discord  fomented  from  principle.  One  of 
Lord  North's  objects  was  to  divide  the  colonies  by  jealousies  so 
as  to  simplify  the  problem  of  governing  them.  He  even  ad- 
mitted in  debate  that  his  policy  was  Divide  et  impera. 

5,  30.  Juridical:  according  to  the  letter  of  the  law,  rather  than 
in  a  spirit  of  justice. 

6,4.  Former  unsuspecting  confidence,  etc.:  a  phrase  used  by 
the  Continental  Congress  to  describe  the  effect  of  the  repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act.  Burke  was  struck  by  the  expression,  and  used  it  not 
only  in  his  speech,  but  in  his  Letter  to  the  Sheriffs  of  Bristol, — 
"This  unsuspecting  confidence  is  the  true  center  of  gravity 
amongst  mankind,  about  which  all  the  parts  are  at  rest." 

6,  10.  Refined:  elaborate.   The  general  statements  contained 
in  this  and  the  two  succeeding  sentences  are  not  theoretical,  though 
they  have  the  appearance  of  being  so.     They  are  generalized  from 
actual  human  experience.     They  differ  from  theory  as  much  as 
observation  differs  from  imagination.     It  is  important  to  make  this 
distinction  because  throughout  the  speech  Burke  uses  generaliza- 
tions from  fact  and  experience,  and,  at  the  same  time,  scouts  the 
use  of  mere  theory. 

6,  19.  Pruriency:  itching,  curiosity. 

6,  21.  The  project:  Burke's  name  for  Lord  North's  Proposi- 
tions for  Conciliating  the  Differences  -with  America. 

This  project,  together  with  the  grand  penal  bill,  forms  the  means 
by  which  Lord  North  hoped  to  reduce  America  to  submission. 
The  penal  bill  sought  to  punish  the  colonies  for  their  opposition  to 
unfair  restrictions  upon  trade;  while  this  project  had  for  its 
avowed  object,  the  separation  of  the  "  reasonable  from  the  unrea- 
sonable," that  is,  of  those  who  gave  up  certain  natural  rights  of  a 
subject,  from  those  who  would  not.  It  proposed  that  Parliament 
should  control  the  public  funds  of  all  the  American  colonies.  King 


NOTES  AND  COMMENT  91 

and  Parliament  were  to  fix  the  proportion  of  funds  for  common  de- 
fence to  be  paid  by  each  colony;  and  to  approve  or  disapprove  the 
amount  each  colony  offered  to  subscribe  for  the  support  of  its  civil 
and  judicial  system.  If  a  colony  came  quietly  to  terms,  offering  a 
subscription  satisfactory  to  King  and  Parliament,  these  powers 
would  look  upon  it  with  friendly  eyes,  and,  except  in  the  way  of 
levying  duties  upon  its  importations  into  England,  would  not  tax 
it  further.  Herein  lay  the  conciliatory  feature  of  North's  scheme. 

But  this  bill  was  not  merely  a  test  of  the  subserviency  of  such 
colonies  as  had  not  appeared  restive;  it  was,  and  Lord  North  so 
planned  it,  a  subtle  means  of  producing  jealousy  and  discord 
among  the  colonies  towards  one  another,  which  would  render  some 
of  the  colonies  the  allies  of  England,  in  her  punitive  attitude  to- 
wards the  rest.  For  instance,  it  was  hoped  that  New  York  would 
join  England  against  Massachusetts,  and  thus  give  a  strong  moral 
support  to  the  disciplinary  acts  of  the  mother  country. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  sort  of  legislation  had  already  worked 
just  the  other  way.  The  colonies  had  made  common  cause  against 
their  common  oppressor,  and  in  this  new  emergency  they  took  the 
same  course.  All  but  Georgia  sent  representatives  to  Philadelphia 
to  protest  against  such  "conciliatory"  measures. 

6,  22.  Noble  lord  in  the  blue  ribbon:  a  conventional  compli- 
ment to  Lord  North,  who  was  "noble  lord"  by  courtesy  only,  his 
father  being  still  alive.  It  was  thus  he  could  hold  a  seat  in  the 
lower  house.  He  was  a  Knight  of  the  Garter,  and  therefore  was 
entitled  to  wear  as  garter  the  blue  ribbon  embroidered,  honi  soil 
qui  mal  y  pense. 

6,  24.  Colony  agents:  persons  employed  by  the  colonies  to 
look  after  their  respective  interests  in  Parliament.  Burke  was 
agent  for  New  York;  Franklin,  during  his  long  residence  in  Eng- 
land, represented  not  only  Massachusetts,  but  two  other  colonies. 

6,  27.  Auction  of  finance.  Burke  implies  that  the  representa- 
tives of  the  various  colonies  when  they  came  to  Parliament  to  settle 
the  proportion  of  payments  called  for  in  the  project  of  Lord  North, 
would  one  after  another  keep  on  increasing  their  bids  for  royal 
favor  till  the  auctioneer,  whoever  that  might  be,  should  be  satisfied 
with  their  offers. 


92  NOTES  AND  COMMENT 

In  such  a  scheme  there  are  several  elements  of  absurdity. 
First,  it  would  be  very  hard  to  determine  the  total  sum  to  be 
raised;  second,  it  would  be  impossible  justly  to  proportion  this  to 
the  abilities  of  the  various  colonies;  third,  every  concession  on  the 
part  of  one  colony  would  encourage  a  demand  by  Parliament  for 
corresponding  concessions  from  all  the  others;  finally,  there  was 
no  reason  why  they  should  make  Parliament  the  arbiter  of  their 
financial  operations.  Burke  evidently  uses  the  term  "auction"  to 
cast  ridicule  upon  a  plan  so  elaborate  as  to  be  impracticable,  and 
one  sure  to  beget  jealousies  among  colonies  bidding  for  the  favor 
of  the  king. 

7,  2 .  The  idea  of  conciliation  is  the  nominal  purpose  of  Lord 
North's  project.  It  suits  Burke  to  regard  this  as  his  real  desire. 

7,  21.  Alien  from  all  the  ancient  methods,  etc.:  modern 
usage  requires  alien  to. 

Burke  is  to  build  his  plan  on  conservative  lines.  The  italics  in 
paragraph  9  indicate  the  same  thing. 

7,  28.  On  the  admitted  principle.  The  remainder  of  the 
paragraph  is  devoted  to  showing  how  the  field  looks  from  this 
ground. 

7,  29.  Peace  implies  reconciliation.  There  is  no  distinction 
to  be  taken  account  of  between  reconciliation  here,  and  concilia- 
tion as  it  is  used  in  the  title  of  the  speech. 

7,  30.  Material  dispute:  a  disagreement  over  tangible  posses- 
sions or  specific   rights.     The   word   material  generally   means 
merely  important,  but  here  has  the  force  of  excluding  those  dis- 
putes in  which  the  two  parties  might  properly  agree  to  disagree; 
as,  for  example,  matters  of  taste,  or  faith. 

8,  2.  Great  and  acknowledged  force.  A  big  Newfoundland 
is  respected  the  more  because  he  forgives  and  pities  the  yelping 
puppy.     Gulliver  amongst  the  Lilliputians  affords  perhaps  a  bet- 
ter parallel. 

8,  6.  The  concessions  of  the  weak.  This  was  just  the  chief 
reason  why  the  colonies  would  concede  nothing  to  England. 

8,12.  The  capital  leading  questions.  Thus  is  introduced  the 
central  topic  of  discussion.  It  has  been  said  that  a  question  well 
asked  is  half  answered. 


NOTES  AND  COMMENT  93 

8,  15.  We  have  gained  some  ground:  referring  of 
course  to  the  ostensibly  conciliatory  purpose  of  North's 
project. 

8,  2 1 .  The  true  nature  and  the  peculiar  circumstances.  It 
will  be  interesting  to  see  whether  Burke  divides  his  study  of  the 
American  problem  according  to  these  heads,  or  whether  he  is 
raguely  using  two  terms  when  the  first  would  be  enough  alone. 
Compare  the  closing  sentence  of  this  paragraph  with  the  opening 
sentences  of  the  15th  and  17th. 

9,  9.  The  true  number.  The  best  authorities  consider  Burke's 
estimate  rather  below  the  mark. 

9,  13.  Population  shoots.  It  is  thought  the  gain  in  the  decade 
preceding  this  speech  was  500,000. 

9,  25.  A  blunter  discernment  than  yours:  a  bungling  at- 
tempt at  compliment. 

9,  27.  Occasional  system:  fit  only  for  the  special  emergency 
or  occasion  which  now  demands  attention. 

10,  14.  A  distinguished  person:  Richard  Glover,  a  merchant 
who  wrote  dull  verses  and  dabbled  in  politics.     Burke  strangely 
wastes  words  upon  him. 

Bar :  an  oak  rail  across  the  entrance  to  the  main  aisle  or  floor 
of  the  House.  Outsiders  wishing  to  address  the  House  stood  at 
this  bar. 

11,  1 6.  Terminating   almost  wholly  in  the  colonies.    A 
slave  was  purchased,  not  with  money,  but  with  the  articles  bought 
in  England.     So  the  purchase  of  a  slave  for  America  would  mean 
to  the  English  merchant  the   same   thing  as  the  exportation  to 
America  of  his  value  in  English  merchandise. 

11,  1 8.  The  West  Indian:     dependent    for    commerce  and 
protection  upon  the  colonies  on  the  Continent. 

12,  9.  No  less  than  twelvefold:  a  skilful  repetition  and  con- 
densation, for  the  purpose  of  making  his  statistics  tell.     Com- 
pare the  opening  of  the  next  paragraph. 

13,  24.  Acta  parentum,  etc.     "To  study  the  example  of  his 
forefathers  and  to  learn  what  virtue  is."   (Virgil,  fourth  Eclogue.) 

Like  many  others  of  Burke's  quotations,  Latin  or  English,  this 
is  not  verbatim.  Sometimes  the  variation  is  evidently  accidental, 


94  NOTES  AND   COMMENT 

but  more  often  it  is  due  to  Burke's  facile  shaping  of  the  extract  to 
suit  his  precise  purpose. 

13,  30.  The  third  prince :    George  III,  whose  father,  Fred- 
erick, died  as  Prince  of  Wales. 

14,  i.  To  be  made  Great  Britain.     In  1707  the  Treaty  of 
Union  joined  Scotland  to  England. 

14,  2.  Turn  back  the  current.      After  Henry  Bathurst  was 
appointed  Lord  Chancellor  in  1771,  his  father  was  made  an  earl, 
while  he  himself  became  a  baron;    distinctions  thus  passing  from 
son  to  father,  in  a  degree,  rather  than  from  father  to  son. 

Burke  naturally  selected  Lord  Bathurst  for  the  purposes  of  this 
paragraph,  both  because  he  had  lived  a  life  of  extraordinary 
length  and  public  activity,  and  because  such  congratulatory  re- 
marks would  please  certain  members  of  the  government.  Earl 
Bathurst  was  a  typical  member  of  that  House  of  Lords  which  had 
just  returned  the  penal  bill  with  emphatic  approval. 

15,  17.  Deceive:  a  translation  oi  Jailer e,  which  has  in  Latin 
the  same  double  sense. 

1 6,  2.  Roman  charity.     Cymon,  being  condemned  to  starve 
in  prison,  was  kept  alive  by  his  daughter  Xanthippe,  with  milk 
from  her  own  breast.     (Hyginus.)     A  similar  story  is  told  of 
Euphrasia  and  Evander. 

16,  20.  The  antipodes:  the  Southern  seas. 

16,  21.  Serpent:  Hydras,  a  small  constellation  in  the  extreme 
south;  not  Hydra,  which  lies  within  35°  of  the  equator. 

Falkland  Island.  The  Falkland  Islands  were  ceded  to  Eng- 
land by  Spain  in  1771.  Before  that  time  they  had  been  regarded 
as  "too  remote  an  object  for  the  grasp  of  national  ambition." 

1 6,  27.  Draw  the  line  and  strike  the  harpoon:  fish  and 
whale. 

16,  28.  Run  the  longitude:  sail  in  a  generally  southerly  (or 
northerly)  direction.  There  is  some  doubt  as  to  Burke's  famil- 
iarity with  sailor  talk;  this  expression  is  not  now  common,  nor  can 
it  be  ascertained  that  it  ever  was.  But  the  idea  is  plain  enough, 
that,  starting  from  their  New  England  home  port,  the  whalers 
would  ran  south  along  the  sixtieth  meridian  of  longitude,  to  the 
coast  of  Brazil. 


NOTES  AND  COMMENT  95 

17,1.  Dexterous  and  firm  sagacity.  This  and  other  expres- 
sions in  this  paragraph  seem  to  indicate  that  Burke  is  approaching 
the  subject  of  the  nature  of  the  colonies. 

17,  10.  A  wise  and  salutary  neglect.  This  phrase  is  entitled 
to  special  consideration,  as  the  key  to  Burke's  solution  of  the 
colonial  problem. 

17,  15.  Human  contrivances:  an  incidental  reference  to  the 
project. 

17,  19.  A  different  conclusion,  etc.  At  this  point  begins  a 
digression,  the  object  of  which  is  to  win  over  some  members  who, 
angry  at  the  colonial  spirit  of  liberty,  rely  on  arms  to  subdue  it. 
Burke  supposes  it  useless  to  present  arguments  in  favor  of  his  res- 
olutions to  such  men,  till  he  has  tried  to  persuade  them  of  the 
foolishness  of  their  own  doctrine.  The  four  objections  to  the  use 
of  force  occupy  only  one  page;  but  they  are  so  cogent  and  so 
clearly  put  that  if  they  had  not  fallen  on  sterile  ground  they  would 
have  proved  good  seeds  of  peace.  Probably  they  actually  resulted 
in  shaking  the  inner  convictions  of  the  fighters  just  enough  to 
render  their  actions  the  more  obstinate  and  prompt.  The  firstlings 
of  their  hearts  became  the  firstlings  of  their  hands, — at  Bunker 
Hill. 

17,  30.  Considering  force  not  as  an  odious,  etc.  This  clos- 
ing passage  may  be  regarded  as  summing  up  the  preceding  discus- 
sion.   With  all  its  brevity  it  safely  avoids  needless  antagonism  by 
harsh  words.     The  phrase  profitable  and  subordinate  is  especially 
politic,  since  it  emphasizes  the  agreement  of  Burke's    ultimate 
aim  with  that  of  the  majority. 

1 8,  8.  Terror  is  not  always,  etc.   American  history  is  full  of 
examples,  besides  the  Revolution.     How  does  it  compare  in  this 
respect  with  the  history  of  England?     Of  Holland? 

19,  13.  Temper  and  character.  This  looks  as  if  Burke  were 
going  to  make  a  special  discussion  of  the  nature  of  the  colonists, 
apart  from  their  numbers  of  commercial  importance.     Can  the 
facts  about  the  nature  of  the  Americans  that  appear  in  the  preced- 
ing discussion  be  regarded  as  subordinate  to  the  facts  about  their 
material  activities, — explanatory  details  used  to  expound  with  due 
emphasis,  the  circumstances  of  the  colonists  ?     If  here  we  find  the 


96  NOTES  AND   COMMENT 

opposite  course  followed,  and  material  circumstances  used  to 
expound  the  nature  of  the  men,  wp  shall  feel  sure  what  Burke 
intended.  Upon  consideration,  it  is  evident  the  two  ideas  cannot 
be  divorced,  but  only  presented  in  altered  relation  to  each  other. 

19,  19.  Shuffle,  etc.:  another  strong  figure  drawn  from  the 
game  of  cards.  Gambling  was  the  chief  recreation  of  high  society 
in  Burke's  day. 

19,  28.  I  hope,  respects,  etc.  Burke  deplored  the  surrender 
of  much  popular  power  to  the  king.  Of  course  the  people's  atti- 
tude toward  America  was  the  direct  moral  result  of  this  surren  'er. 

19,  30.  Emigrated  from  you:  during  the  religious  and  polit- 
ical excitements  which  marked  the  reigns  of  the  Stuart  kings. 

20,  3.  Abstract  liberty.      As  usual  Burke  explains  this  gen- 
eral statement  in  the  following  sentences. 

20,  22.  Blind  usages:  having  their  origin  not  in  intelligible 
principles,  but  in  ancient  and  forgotten  precedents. 

21,  7.  I  do  not  say,  etc.     This  disclaims  the  application  of 
the  right  of  self-taxation  to  the  colonies.     Such  indifference  must 
at  first  appear  to  surrender  the  American  cause.     But  with  char- 
acteristic grasp  upon  the  conduct  of  the  case,  Burke  reverts  to  this 
point  fifteen  pages  later,  and  makes  his  strongest  argument  out  of 
an  apparently  fatal  disclaimer. 

22,  19.  Dissidence  of  dissent,  etc.:  as  we  say  the  "very  quint- 
essence," etc.     The  expression  defies  analysis,  but  its  meaning  is 
clear. 

23,  28.  Gothic :  commonly  misused  in  the  Eighteenth  century, 
for  Saxon. 

23,  29.  The  Poles.     In  1772  occurred  the  partition  of  Poland 
and  the  consequent  leveling  of  her  classes.     Compare  page  5, 
line  2. 

24,  15.  Blackstone's  Commentaries  on  the  laws  of  England, 
published  1769. 

24,  1 6.  General  Gage,  after  being  commander-in-chief  of  the 
English  army  in  America  for  several  years,  became  governor  of 
Massachusetts  in  1774.  When  he  tried  to  enforce  the  act  of  Par- 
liament prohibiting  town-meetings  as  likely  to  stir  up  sedition,  the 
Boston  selectmen  were  too  clever  for  him.  They  simply  adjourned 


NOTES  AND  COMMENT  97 

the  meeting  from  July  to  August,  from  August  to  October,  and 
referred  Governor  Gage  to  the  crown  lawyers. 

24,  27.  Will  disdain  that  ground.     Burke  probably  thought 
he  had  just  stated  the  ground  on  which  his  friend,  Attorney-Gen- 
eral Thurlow,  was  preparing  to  refute.     So,  in  plain  words,  Burke 
said,  "You  may  be  foolish  enough  to  try  to  make  a  point  out  of 
this  legal  knowledge  of  the  colonists.     Here  it  is,  all  made  before 
you  could  get  your  notes  down;  and  now  I'll  show  you  how  little 
it  is  worth." 

Part  of  this  paragraph  was  evidently  unpremeditated.  It  seems 
to  have  been  sharpened  by  Burke's  effort  to  steal  Thurlow's 
thunder.  The  taking  of  notes  in  Parliament  is  an  unusual  pro- 
ceeding. Ancient  etiquette  frowns  upon  any  extensive  practice 
of  it. 

25,  i .  Abeunt  studia  in  mores :  "studies  pass  over  into  char- 
acter."     (Ovid,  Heroides,  xv.,  83.) 

25,  14.  No  contrivance.     Steam  and  electricity  have  almost 
proved  Burke  a  false  prophet. 

25,22.  So  far  shalt  thou  go,  etc.  King  Canute's  application 
of  this  remark  to  the  instruction  of  his  court  is  familiar.  The  book 
of  Job  contains  the  same  thought  in  grander  sequence.  (Chapter 
38.) 

26,  32.  What,  in  the  name  of  God,  etc.    This  question  para- 
phrases the  one  in  paragraph  14.     A  good  deal  of  progress  has 
been  made  in  the  statement  of  facts  since  that  preliminary  ques- 
tion was  put. 

27,  6.  We  are  called  upon  to  fix,  etc.    This  takes  us  back  to 
the  very  beginning  of  the  speech.     But  see  note  on  page  30,  line  4, 

27,  ii.  Still  more  untractable  form :  Stamp  Act,  tax  on 
tea,  bills  of  pains  and  penalties,  war,  independence — this  in- 
dicates the  actual  climax. 

27,  19.  An  emanation  from  yours:  evidence  of  the  "wise 
»,nd  salutary  policy  "  of  neglecting  the  colonies.  It  was  in  the  fifth 
year  of  the  reign  of  George  III  that  this  policy  was  rudely  laid 
aside,  and  that  trouble  began.  The  financial  aim  of  Grenville 
was  to  make  America  pay  a  part  of  the  debt  of  £82,000,000 
incurred  by  Pitt  in  the  war  with  France. 


98  NOTES  AND  COMMENT 

27,  25.  An  operose  business.  Gladstone's  remark  about  the 
constitution  of  the  United  States  emphasizes  this  idea.  "As  the 
British  Constitution  is  the  most  subtile  organism  which  has  pro- 
ceeded from  progressive  History,  so  the  American  Constitution  is 
the  most  wonderful  work  ever  struck  off  at  a  given  time  by  the 
brain  and  purpose  of  man." 

27,  30.  Another  way.     In  Massachusetts  and   Virginia  the 
government  had  been  carried  on  for  some  time  in  absolute  defi- 
ance of  their  respective  governors,  Gage  and  Dunmore. 

28,  13.  A  manufacture,  etc.:  an  echo  of  the  discussion  of  pa- 
per government,  paragraph  7.     See  note. 

28,  23.  Abrogated  the  ancient  government,  etc.:   by  the 
"Act  for  the  better  regulating  the  government  of  the  Province  of 
the  Massachusetts  Bay  in  New  England." 

The  assembly  was  still  to  be  elected  by  the  people;  but  the 
council  was  to  be  appointed  by  the  king,  all  law-officers  by  the 
governor,  and  all  jurymen  by  the  sheriff.  The  law  also  required 
town-meetings  to  be  called  by  the  governor.  We  have  seen  how 
this  measure  was  evaded;  and  as  to  the  working  of  the  rest  of  the 
act,  see  lines  26-32. 

29,  8.  I  am  much  against,  etc.    If  we  follow  out  this  thought 
we  shall  get  some  light  on  Burke's  attitude  toward  the  French 
Revolutionists.     But  in  their  case  Burke  traced  the  fault  to  the 
people;   not,  as  in  this,  to  the  ruler. 

29,  28.  An  equal  attention.     One  is  entitled  to  suppose  that 
the  empty  or  listless  benches  here  struck  Burke's  notice  for  a  mo- 
ment. 

30,4.  Another:  Dean  Tucker's,  which  was  wiser  than  Burke 
thought  it. 

The  argument  by  exclusion  which  begins  here,  consists  of  a  con- 
sideration of  the  three  possible  courses  of  action,  in  the  light  of  the 
nature  and  circumstances  of  the  colonists.  It  is  demonstrated  that 
neither  of  the  first  two  is  feasible,  but  that  the  third  is  a  practicable 
and  wise  course.  It  is  now  possible  to  see  how  much  progress  has 
been  made  toward  fixing  a  policy.  The  conditions  of  the  problem 
are  before  us. 

30,  29.  To  raise  the  value,  etc.     Such  an  easy  reference  to  a 


NOTES  AND  COMMENT  9C 

principle  of  political  economy  should  remind  us  that  Burke  was  a 
pioneer  in  this  field  of  statesmanship. 

31,  10.  From  thence  they  behold,  etc.:  evidence  of  Burke's 
knowledge  of  American  geography.  It  was  more  accurate  than 
that  of  the  nobleman  who  left  the  office  of  colonial  secretary 
after  many  years  of  service  (?)  believing  New  England  to  be 
an  island. 

31,  1 8.  Become  masters,  etc.:  a  good  subject  for  a  cartoon. 

31,  20.  All  the  slaves.  This  is  another  side  of  the  same  truth 
that  Pitt  uttered  in  Parliament  when  it  was  announced  that  the 
Americans  were  resisting  the  Stamp  Act.  "In  my  opinion,  this 
kingdom  has  no  right  to  lay  a  tax  on  the  colonies.  .  .  .  Sir,  I 
rejoice  that  America  has  resisted.  Three  millions  of  people  so 
dead  to  all  the  feelings  of  liberty  as  voluntarily  to  submit  to  be 
slaves,  would  have  been  fit  instruments  to  make  slaves  of  the 
rest." 

31,25.  Lair  of  wild  beasts:  a  reference  to  the  " royal  wilder- 
ness" of  paragraph  49. 

31,  27.  Our  policy  hitherto:    repeating  the  thought  in  para- 
graph 17,  "wise  and  salutary  neglect."     Eventually  this  idea  will 
dominate  in  the  speech. 

32,  10.  Their  marine  enterprises.     Burke  takes  three  para- 
graphs to  treat  the  circumstance,  population,  in  its  bearing  on  the 
first  mode  of  procedure.     But  here  in  paragraph  52,  he  treats  the 
remaining  circumstances,  commerce,  agriculture  and  fisheries,  all 
under  one  head,  marine  enterprises.     He  saw  that  agriculture  was 
significant  only  from  the  commercial  point  of  view. 

To  take  a  profound  view  of  related  particulars  is  one  of  the 
marks  of  a  statesman.  Burke  showed  in  paragraph  20,  a  similar 
insight  regarding  the  African  and  West  Indian  trade. 

32,  23.  A  little  preposterous.  In  this  sentence  Burke  reduces 
the  "method"  to  an  absurdity.     He  deals  with  it  in  like  manner 
from  the  point  of  view  successively  of  every  one  of  the  six  causes 
of  the  spirit  of  liberty.     Then  he  takes  up  the  second  "method." 

33,  i.  Spoliatis  anna  supersunt.     "To  the  impoverished  re- 
mains the  privilege  of  insurrection."     (Juvenal,  eighth  Satire.) 

33,  5.  Fierce:  because  passionately  fond  of  freedom. 


100  NOTES  AND   COMMENT 

33,  9.  Detect:  reveal. 

33,  17.  Confide  to:  now  confide  in. 

33,  27.  Chargeable:  expensive. 

33,  29.  Kept  in  obedience.     Mr.  Hammond  Lamont  quotes 
from  Burke's  Address  to  the  King,  "That  the  establishment  of 
such  a  [military]  power  in  America  will  utterly  ruin  our  finances — 
though  its  certain  effect — is  the  smallest  part  of  our  concern.      It 
will  become  an  apt,  powerful,  and  certain  engine  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  our  freedom  here.     Great  bodies  of  armed  men,  trained  to 
a  contempt  of  popular  assemblies  representative  of  an  English 
people, — kept  up  for  the  purpose  of  exacting  impositions  without 
their  consent,  and  maintained  by  that  exaction, — instruments  in 
subverting,  without  any  process  of  law,  great  ancient  establish- 
ments and  respected  forms  of  governments, — set  fr~e  from,  and 
therefore  above,  the  ordinary  English  tribunals  of  the  country 
where   they  serve, — these  men  cannot  so  transform  themselves 
merely  by  crossing  the  sea,  as  to  behold  with  love  and  reverence, 
and  submit  with  profound  obedience  to,  the  very  same  things  in 
Great  Britain  which  in  America  they  had  been  taught  to  despise, 
and  had  been  accustomed  to  awe  and  humble." 

34,  15.  As:  though. 

34,  19.  One  of  whose  causes  of  quarrel,  etc.    This  is  one 
of  Burke's  characteristic  turns  of  thought  which  flood  a  situation 
with  light.     No  wonder  he  felt  he  could  afford  to  spend  a  mo- 
ment in  the  whimsical  illustrations  which  follow. 

35,  9.  The  late  exercise  of  our  authority.      All   the   serf 
ously  irritating  legislation  had  taken  place  within  the  preceding 
decade. 

35,  15.  Too  big.  Here  again  begins  the  discussion  of  that 
circumstance,  population.  This  is  the  only  item  fully  discussed 
in  this  connection.  Hereafter  Burke  takes  it  for  granted  that  the 
nature  and  circumstances  of  the  colonies  are  clearly  in  the  minds 
of  the  members.  A  more  methodical  debater  would  have  clung 
to  his  formal  analysis;  but  to  drop  that  and  not  lose  in  force  of 
argument  proves  the  master.  Burke's  genius  is  shown  not  so 
much  by  the  plan  of  the  speech,  as  by  the  fact  that  the  speech  is 
powerful  in  spite  of  interruptions  of  the  plan. 


NOTES  AND  COMMENT  101 

35,  20.  Civil  dissensions.  There  are  several  such  terms  in 
this  paragraph,  used  to  impress  Parliament  with  the  need  of 
reason  in  dealing  with  America. 

35,  28.  Sir  Edward  Coke.  Burke  evidently  draws  a  mental 
parallel  between  this  infamous  magistrate  and  the  party  which 
would  indict  the  American  people.  The  type  of  justice  dispensed 
by  this  Elizabethan  Attorney-General  may  be  seen  in  a  citation 
from  the  trial  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh — 

"At  the  repeating  of  some  things  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  inter- 
rupted him  (Coke),  and  said  he  did  him  wrong. 

"Coke.  Thou  art  the  most  vile  and  execrable  traitor  that  ever 
lived. 

"Raleigh.     You  speak  indiscreetly,  barbarously,  and  uncivilly. 

"Coke.  I  want  words  sufficient  to  express  thy  viperous  trea- 
sons." 

35,  30.  Ripe:  ready. 

36,  6.  Distinguished  from  a  single  state.     Compare  lines 
16-26  of  the  preceding  paragraph. 

36,  10.  Constitutions:   here  used  concretely. 

36,  12.  Many  local  privileges.  Compare  the  last  half  of 
paragraph  43. 

36,  19.  Ex  vi  termini:  "from  the  very  meaning  of  the 
term." 

36,  31.  Will  it  not  teach  them,  etc.    Another  powerful  turn 
of  thought,  and  one  which  shows  Burke's  intense  sympathy  with 
the  colonists. 

37»  5-  We  are  indeed,  etc.  Here  Burke  returns  to  the  ques- 
tion of  criminal  procedure.  The  preceding  paragraph  may  be 
regarded  as  a  digression  into  the  philosophy  of  imperial  govern- 
ment. Can  you  find  the  results  of  the  digression  used  in  para- 
graph 62? 

37,  17.  Right.  The  play  on  this  word  in  line  19  is  justified 
by  the  context. 

37,  21.  The  most  vexatious  of  all  injustice.  Compare  Cic- 
ero,— summum  jus,  summa  injuria, — "the  extreme  of  the  law  is 
the  extreme  of  injustice." 

37,  23.  Civil  litigant  in  point  of  right  is  balanced  with  whose 


102  NOTES  AND  COMMENT 

moral  quality,  etc.;  culprit  before  me,  with  while  I  sit  as  a  criminal 
judge,  etc. 

38,  3.  Have  seemed  to  adopt  that  mode.  The  bearing  of  the 
Massachusetts  case  upon  the  wisdom  of  the  grand  penal  bill  is 
direct  and  forcible.  It  shows  up  both  the  principles  and  the  legis- 
lators involved.  When  Burke  speaks  of  criminal  proceedings 
against  America,  it  is  such  bills  and  such  men  that  he  has  in  mind. 

38,  5.  Formerly  addressed.  In  1777  Burke  wrote  to  the 
sheriffs  of  Bristol  as  follows:  "It  is  necessary,  gentlemen,  to  ap- 
prise you  that  there  is  an  act,  made  so  long  ago  as  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII,  before  the  existence  or  thought  of  any  English  col- 
onies in  America,  for  the  trial  in  this  kingdom  of  treasons  com- 
mitted out  of  the  realm.  In  the  year  1769  Parliament  thought 
proper  to  acquaint  the  Crown  with  their  construction  of  that  act 
in  a  formal  address,  wherein  they  entreated  his  Majesty  to  cause 
persons  charged  with  high  treason  in  America  to  be  brought  into 
this  kingdom  for  trial.  By  this  act  of  Henry  VIII.,  so  construed 
and  so  applied,  almost  all  that  is  substantial  and  beneficial  in  a 
trial  by  jury  is  taken  away  from  the  subjects  in  the  colonies.  This 
is,  however,  saying  too  little;  for  to  try  a  man  under  that  act  is,  in 
effect,  to  condemn  him  unheard.  A  person  is  brought  hither  in 
the  dungeon  of  a  ship's  hold;  thence  he  is  vomited  into  a  dun- 
geon on  land,  loaded  with  irons,  unfurnished  with  money,  unsup- 
ported by  friends,  three  thousand  miles  from  all  means  of  calling 
upon  or  confronting  evidence,  where  no  one  local  circumstance 
that  tends  to  detect  perjury  can  possibly  be  judged  of; — ;such  a 
person  may  be  executed  according  to  form,  but  he  can  never  be 
tried  according  to  justice." 

38,  1 8.  Menaces  is  largely  explained  by  penal  laws  in  line  20, 
and  force  in  line  23.  Both  houses  of  Parliament  had  also  ad- 
dressed the  king  with  heated  and  numerous  assurances  of  their 
readiness  to  support  the  royal  authority  in  the  colonies. 

38,  20.  Penal  laws:  such  as  the  Stamp  Act,  the  Tea  Duty, 
the  Act  for  the  Quartering  of  Soldiers  upon  the  colonists,  the 
Boston  Port  Bill,  the  Act  for  the  Impartial  Administration  of 
Justice  in  Massachusetts,  and  various  other  attempts  to  coerce 
the  Americans,  down  to  the  pending  penal  bill. 


NOTES  AND  COMMENT  103 

38,  23.  By  land  and  sea:  about  3,000  seamen  in  nineteen 
vessels;  together  with  the  shore  garrisons  which  the  king  had  re- 
cently asked  the  House  of  Commons  to  increase. 

38,  28.  Correctly:    exactly, 

39,  9.  The  characteristic  mark  and  seal  of  British  freedom 
was  the  privilege  of  self-taxation. 

39,  20.  Nothing  to  do  with  the  question  of  the  right,  etc. 
Observe  the  emphasis  on  the  word  "right."  The  whole  speech  is 
concerned  with  the  subject  of  "taxation." 

39,  30.  Polity:  government. 

40,  9.  Serbonian  bog.  Herodotus  found  this  bog  in  Northern 
Egypt,  but  it  has  long  since  disappeared.     With  it  Milton  com- 
pares certain  regions  of  Hell,  over  which  the  bands  of  fallen  angels 
wandered  while  Satan  was  on  his  journey  to  Earth. 

Burke  in  a  previous  debate  had  not  hesitated  to  admit  that  Par- 
liament had  an  unquestionable  right  to  tax  America.  But  in  such 
matters  his  appeal  was  to  expediency,  as,  in  government,  the 
higher  law. 

40,  13.  The  question  with  me  is,  etc.:  a  powerful  antithesis 
compelling  attention  to  the  practical  side  of  the  problem  of  Amer- 
ican taxation.    There  is  compressed  into  this  sentence  most  of 
Burke's  general  policy  toward  the  colonies. 

The  last  two  questions  in  the  paragraph  emphasize  the  idea  of 
line  15.  Compare  paragraph  34. 

41,  3.  Solemnly  abjured.    One  of  Johnson's  strong  points  in 
his  Taxation  no  Tyranny  was  that  by  voluntarily  quitting  England 
the  colonists  had  resigned  their  right  to  self-government. 

41,  1 6.  An  interest  in  the  constitution  means  a  share  in  such 
privileges  as  the  constitution  secures  for  citizens.  Burke  proposes 
to  make  the  Americans  feel  they  have  lost  nothing  of  their  birth- 
right of  citizenship  by  emigrating. 

41,  23.  Understood  principle.  The  Stamp  Tax  was  repealed 
as  a  revenue  act,  not  as  a  trade  lav,., — a  distinction  on  which  the 
next  four  or  five  paragraphs  dwell.  Trade  laws  had  been  en- 
forced upon  the  colonies  for  over  a  century,  with  comparatively 
slight  objection  on  their  part. 

41,  26.  To  give  perfect  content.  It  is  an  interesting  question 


104  NOTES  AND   COMMENT 

for  discussion,  whether  it  was  still  possible  for  England  perma- 
nently to  bind  the  thirteen  colonies  to  herself. 

42,  i.  American  financiers:  members  who  hope  for  any  con- 
siderable revenue  from  the  colonies. 

42,  3.  Exquisite:  apprehensive.     Compare  inquisitive. 

42,  8.  Further  views.  Burke  discusses  this  argument  in  para- 
graph 75.  It  was  a  favorite  one  with  the  opponents  of  concession. 

42,  13.  A  gentleman:  Mr.  Rice,  one  of  those  holding  the 
opinion  that  the  colonies  would  take  an  ell  if  given  an  inch.  It 
was  quite  generally  suspected  that  America  was  aiming  at  inde- 
pendence. 

42,  23.  Shall:  is  bound  to;  the  old  sense  of  the  word. 

43,  19.  Confine  is  intensified  by  narrow. 

44,  1 1 .  Decency :    courtesy  to  an  opponent  due  to  one's  self. 
44,  2 1 .  Panic  fears :  imaginary  fears  such  as  the  god  Pan  was 

supposed  to  inspire  by  the  loneliness  and  shadows  of  the  woods, 
the  howling  of  the  wind,  etc. 

44,  31.  Suspicions,  conjectures,    divinations.     Each  term 
condemns  some  special  objection.     Suspicions  show  lack  of  faith 
in  American  loyalty;   conjectures  are  mere  guesses  at  what  so 
energetic  a  people  may  do;   divinations  indicate  superstition. 

45,  9.  Wisdom  of  our  ancestors.     Conservatism  is  the  key- 
note of  Burke's  statesmanship. 

45,  20.  Issue  of  their  affairs.  Judging  from  the  relative  co- 
lonial strength  of  Spain  and  England  to-day,  the  genius  of  Philip 
would  seem  completely  to  have  misled  his  clients. 

45,  23.  The  English  constitution  is  not, like  that  of  the  United 
States,  a  written  body  of  fundamental  principles  of  government. 
It  consists  of  various  great  pieces  of  legislation,  of  judicial  and 
parliamentary  precedents,  and  of  many  unwritten  laws.  This  does 
not  mean  that  the  English  constitution  is  vague  or  fragile,  but  sim- 
ply that  the  principles  underlying  all  these  concrete  expressions  of 
the  national  spirit  have  not  been  abstracted,  and  formulated,  as 
ours  have,  in  a  single  document. 

Burke  frequently  uses  the  word  constitution  not  as  here,  but  as 
in  paragraph  77,  to  indicate  the  national  spirit  itself, — its  powers, 
its  claims,  its  responsiveness,  its  freedom,  its  unity. 


NOTES  AND   COMMENT  105 

45,25.  Four  capital  examples.  There  was  no  superstition  in 
consulting  this  oracle, — the  history  of  four  important  cases  similar 
to  that  of  America. 

45,  28.  Ireland  before  the  English  conquest  was  a  seething 
mass  of  petty  kingdoms.     Henry  II  in  1172  conquered  a  strip  of 
land  on  the  East,  and  peopled  it  with  English  subjects.     This  sec- 
tion was  called  the  Pale;    and  this  alone  partook  of  the  feast  of 
Magna  Charta  and  enjoyed  the  other  English  privileges  as  they 
were  granted.     After  several  so-called  conquests,  the  whole  coun- 
try was  subdued  by  force  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  and  granted 
civil  rights  in  that  of  her  successor. 

46,  1 8.  Sir  John  Davies:    speaker  of  the  first  Irish  House 
of  Commons,  in  the  reign  of  James  I.     The  work  to  which  Burke 
refers  has  an  interesting  title, — "Discovery  of  the  true  causes  why 
Ireland  was  never  entirely  subdued  or  brought  under  Obedience 
of  the  Crown  of  England  until    the  Beginning  of  his  Majesty's 
happy  Reign." 

46,  24.  Civility:  civilization. 

46,29.  Changed  the  people:  especially  in  the  North  by  the 
colonization  of  Ulster  in  1610.  (See  Green's  Short  History,  pp. 
439-453,  for  an  account  of  the  affairs  of  Ireland  up  to  the  reign 
of  Charles  I.)  Altered  the  religion.  The  Church  of  England 
supplanted  the  Church  of  Rome. 

47,  3.  Usurpation:    the    Commonwealth    and  Protectorate, 
1649-1660. 

47,  4.  The  glorious  revolution  of  1688,  which  brought  in 
William  of  Orange  and  the  Bill  of  Rights. 

47>  7-  Principal  part:  another  evidence  of  Burke's  love  for 
Ireland. 

47,  1 3 .  An  exception  to  prove  the  rule :  a  complacent  use  of 
an  old  Latin  adage.  The  saying  has  no  point,  however,  unless 
the  case  in  hand  is  admitted  to  be  exceptional. 

47,  17.  Lucrative:     not  lucrative. 

47,  1 8.  The  stated  and  fixed  rule  has  been  that  Ireland 
should  tax  herself.  When  a  breach  has  been  made  in  this  con- 
stitution (i.e.,  institution  or  rule)  she  has  raised  no  taxes. 

47,  32.  Lords  Marchers:    lords  of  the  marches  or  frontiers. 


106  NOTES  AND   COMMENT 

They  were  sanctioned  by  the  early  English  kings  to  rJe  such  ter- 
ritory in  Wales  as  they  could  seize  and  hold.  After  Edward  I 
conquered  the  country,  a  movement  toward  introducing  English 
laws  and  customs  began,  which,  notwithstanding  fifteen  penal  reg- 
ulations, did  not  succeed  till  Henry  VIII  gave  the  Welsh  an 
interest  in  the  English  constitution. 

48,  5.  Secondary:  incidental  to  his  military  authority.  Burke 
slyly  defines  this  government  in  such  terms  as  strongly  to  suggest 
recent  attempts  to  control  Virginia  (Dunmore)  and  Massachusetts 
(Gage)  by  military  power. 

48,  21.  Disarm  New  England.     General  Gage  was  ordered 
to  seize  the  military  stores  at  Cambridge  and  other  places,  and 
bring  them  to  Boston. 

49,  4.  Rid:   old  form  of  rode. 

Incubus:   a  nightmare;   an  oppressive  burden. 
49,  13.  Ill-husbandry:  false  economy. 

49,  14.  Tyranny  of  a  free  people:     tyranny  exercised  by  a 
free  people. 

50,  5.  Simul  alba  nautis.    etc.  "Their  clear  star  has  shone 
forth  upon  the  sailors,  and  lo,  the  stormy  seas  flow  back  down  the 
rocks,  the  winds  are  stilled,  the  clouds  flee  away,  and,  at  their 
bidding,  the  threatening  waves  subside  upon  the  deep."    (Horace's 
ode  in  praise  of  Castor  and  Pollux.) 

50,  ii.  County  Palatine:  a  county  which  the  owner  rules  as 
a  king  his  palace. 

50,  17.  Standing  army:  of  2,000  archers,  hired  by  the  tyrant 
as  his  bodyguard. 

50,  21.  Shewen:    old  form  of  show;  its  subject,  inhabitants. 

50,  23.  Where:   whereas. 

50,  26.  Knights  and  burgesses:  representatives  of  counties 
and  towns  respectively. 

50,  27.  Disherisons:   deprivations  of  property. 

50,  30.  Commonwealth:  welfare. 

51,  4.  Ne:   nor. 

51,  7.  Derogatory:  injurious.  Compare  with  derogation  in 
line  13. 

51,  12.  Libel:   undeserved  or  improper  censure. 


NOTES  AND  COMMENT.  107 

51,  14.  Over.     We  say  upon. 

51,  17.  Temperament:  tempering,  moderating. 

52,  i .  Abstract  extent.   Refer  to  paragraph  82.     Burke's  pur- 
pose is  to  silence  those  who  fear  the  destructive  effect  of  conceding 
the  vital  privilege  of  taxation. 

52,  3.  Any  considerable  district:  an  echo  of  the  argument 
in  paragraph  59. 

52,  15.  Judge  Harrington:  presiding  over  three  counties  of 
Wales. 

52,  24.  Virtually  represented:  by  having  laws  made  for  them 
by  the  representatives  of  one-ninth  of  the  English  people;    only 
one  million  out  of  nine  having  the  right  to  elect  members  to  Par- 
liament. 

53,  7.  Opposuit  natura:  "nature  opposes  it."  (Juvenal,  tenth 
Satire.) 

53,  25.  Republic,  Utopia,  Oceana:  ideal  commonwealths; 
the  first  produced  in  the  fourth  century,  B.  c.,  the  others  in  the 
fifteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  A.  D.,  respectively. 

53,  28.  Rude  swain.  Milton,  Comus,  line  634,  has  dull 
swain.  Such  slight  inaccuracies  would  not  occur  if  the  text  were 
consulted  with  deliberate  intent  to  quote,  or  if  Burke  did  not  in 
his  own  mind  lay  the  chief  stress  on  the  thought-content  of  the 
quotation. 

53,  29.  Clouted  shoon:  shoes,  heavy  and  bungling  because 
either  roughly  patched,  or  studded  with  nails. 

54,  5.  The  year  1763  saw  Grenville  throw  over  the  policy  of 
salutary  neglect,  and  adopt  exaction  and  compulsion  in  colonial 
government. 

54,  6.  My  resolutions.  The  substance  of  the  resolutions  is 
suggested  by  the  italics  in  this  paragraph.  They  will  repay  care- 
ful consideration  in  pairs, — grant  and  imposition;  dutiful  and 
beneficial;  benefit  and  futility. 

54,  10.  Aids:     another    synonym    for     supplies,     subsidies, 
revenue. 

55,  4.  Fourteen  governments.     The  fourteenth  government 
was  either  Quebec    or  Nova  Scotia.      Authorities   differ  as   to 
just  what  Burke  had  in  mind. 


108  NOTES  AND  COMMENT 

55,  20.  Subsidies  given,  granted  and  assented  to.  This 
really  means  taxes,  demanded  of  the  colonies. 

55,  29.  Non  meus  hie  sermo,  etc.  "The  doctrine  is  not 
mine,  but  that  of  Ofellus;  who,  though  a  rustic,  is  wise  after  a 
fashion  of  his  own."  (Horace,  second  Satire.) 

55,  31.  Produce:   product  is  more  precise. 

56,  3.  Metal,  stones,  tracks.    Here  is  profusion,  if  not  con- 
fusion, of  metaphors. 

The  thought  of  venerable  rust  may  have  come  from  Juvenal 
(thirteenth  Satire);  the  thought  of  profaning  the  altar  with  tools 
was  evidently  suggested  by  Exodus,  22. 

56,  29.  Grieved  in  their  privileges.     Burke  uses   a  strong 
illustration  of  this  fact  in  his  speech  on  American  Taxation.    "The 
feelings  of  the  colonies  were  formerly  the  feelings  of  Great  Britain. 
Theirs  were  formerly  the  feelings  of  Mr.  Hampden,  when  called 
upon  for  the  payment  of  twenty  shillings.     Would  twenty  shill- 
ings have  ruined  Mr.  Hampden's  fortune?    No!  but  the  payment 
of  half  twenty  shillings  on  the  principle  it  was  demanded  would 
have  made  him  a  slave." 

57,  1 5 .  Lord  Hillsborough,  being  colonial  secretary,  wrote  to 
America  a  public  assurance  that  the  ministry  intended  not  only  to 
!ay  no  further  taxes  on  the  colonies,  but  to  remove  the  duties  then 
levied  on  glass,  paper  and  colors,  as  duties  laid  contrary  to  the 
true  principle  of  commerce. 

57,  20.  The  resolution:  the  "project." 

58,  1 6.  Paradoxically.     The  contradiction  was  between  their 
theories  and  their  practice.    In  theory,  prominently  held  by  Gren- 
ville,    Parliament    alone    could    grant    supplies    to    the    crown. 
Yet  practically   the   thing   was  done  by  certain  colonies  every 
year. 

58,  2 1 .  Some  of  the  law  servants.     In  1766  Lord  Mansfield 
declared  it  unconstitutional  for  any  number  of  people  without  the 
consent  of  Parliament,  to  raise  money  for  the  king. 

58,22.  If  the  crown  could  be  responsible.  It  is  an  accepted 
fiction  that  the  king  can  do  no  wrong.  Credit  may  accrue  to  him 
from  wise  government;  errors  discredit  his  ministers. 

59,  10.  So  high:   "so  far  back."     (Lamont.) 


NOTES  AND  COMMENT  109 

59,  26.  Public  credit:    an  incidental  evidence  of  the  legality 
of  the  grant. 

60,  19.  Two  things.     Compare  the  fifth  resolution. 

61,  2.  Miserable  stories.    Lamont  quotes  from  Franklin's  tes- 
timony before  Parliament:    "America  has  been  greatly  misrep- 
resented and  abused  here  in  papers  and  pamphlets  and  speeches, 
as  ungrateful  and  unreasonable  and  unjust,  in  having  put  this 
nation  to  immense  expense  for  their  defence  and  refusing  to  bear 
any  part  of  that  expense." 

Two  and  a  half  millions  had  been  their  contribution  towards 
defraying  the  expenses  of  the  French  and  Indian  War. 

61,  3.  Misguided  people:   the  people  of  England. 

61,  15.  Subject  to  the  payment  of  taxes :  not  taxes  formally 
laid,  but  debts  assumed  in  response  to  requisitions  from  the 
ministers  of  the  crown. 

61,  26.  Requisition.    The  word  is  more  formal  and  authorita- 
tive than  request,  but  less  arbitrary  than  imposition.     See  require 
in  the  fifth  resolution. 

•*•— -61,  30.  Revenue  by  grant:     revenue    voted    in  the  colonial 
assemblies. 

62,  12.  Granting,   etc.     This  is  the   interest  in  the  British 
Constitution  Burke  wished  to  give  America. 

63,  6.  The  following  resolution  has  several  points  in  com- 
mon with  what  the  colonists  called  the  Intolerable  Acts. 

63,  10.  Granting:    levying. 

63,  1 2 .  Drawback :  a  rebate  allowed  on  the  import  duty 
when  imported  goods  were  exported. 

63,  1 6.  Clandestine  running:    smuggling. 

63,  19.  An  act  to  discontinue:  the  Boston  Port  Bill. 

63,  25.  An  act  for  the  impartial  administration  of  justice: 
the  Transportation  Act.  This  provided  for  the  transportation  to 
England  or  to  another  colony,  of  any  person  accused  of  a  capital 
offence  committed  while  aiding  the  magistrates  to  enforce  the  law. 
It  was  this  act  which,  as  Burke  said,  put  the  king's  soldiers  beyond, 
and  therefore  above,  the  courts  of  an  English  colony. 

63,  3 1 .  An  act  for  the  better  regulating,  etc.  This  abroga- 


110  NOTES  AND  COMMENT 

ted  the  charter-government  of  Massachusetts.     It  is  explained  in 
paragraph  46,  and  the  note  on  it.     See  page  98. 

63,  34.  An  act  for  the  trial  of  treasons.     See  note  on  line  4, 
page  38. 

64,  8.  Restraining  Bill:    the  "grand  penal  bill." 

64,  12.  Equal  guilt.  Circumstances  conspired  to  give  Eng- 
lishmen the  impression  that  Massachusetts  (especially  Boston) 
was  the  most  aggressive  of  the  American  malcontents. 

64,  20.  Less  power:    for  example,  in  the  matter  of  veto. 

64,  27.  Exceptionable:   blameworthy. 

64,  32.  The  returning  officer:    the  sheriff  in  his  capacity  as 
summoner  of  juries. 

65,  5.  Temporary:   to  remain  in  force  three  years.     There  is 
a  gibe  at  this  idea  in  the  following  sentences. 

65,  15.  In  places,  etc.  Burke  feels  that  the  American  colo- 
nies, with  English  charters,  having  the  law  intelligently  admin- 
istered (see  paragraph  42),  do  not  come  under  this  head. 

65,  17.  Having  guarded:  by  several  of  the  items  of  the  first 
corollary  resolution.  Some  of  those  items  have  a  double  bear- 
ing, however. 

65,  23.  Settled  salary:  settled  not  by  the  king,  but  by  vote  of 
the  local  legislature;  and  paid  not  out  of  rents  accruing  to  the 
king  (which  would  compromise  a  judge's  independence),  but  by 
colonial  grant. 

65,  27.  During  good  behavior:  and  not  during  the  pleasure 
of  the  king. 

65,  29.  On  complaint.    The  complaint  might  originate  with 
the  general  assembly,  that  is,  council  and  house  of  representatives 
in  conjunction ;  or  it  might  originate  with  any  separate  branch  of 
the  colonial  government. 

66,  i.  Courts  of  admiralty:    in  which  marine  questions  and 
customs  cases  were  settled.     By  an  atrocious  plan  which  had  just 
been  changed  when  this  speech  was  delivered,   the  admiralty- 
justice  was  paid  with  a  portion  of  the  goods  condemned  in  his 
own  court,  a  third  of  all  seizures  also  going  to  the  governor  of  the 
province.     Naturally  seizures  were  thought  desirable  by   these 
officials.      In    the   course   of   discussion     Burke   was   informed 


NOTES  AND  COMMENT  111 

of  the  redress  of  this  grievance,  and  the  resolution  was  amended. 

66,  6.  Commodious:  convenient.  They  were  few  and  far 
apart. 

66,  20.   Consequential:   consequent. 

66,  31.  The  first  will  be,  etc.     The  straw  man  that  Burke 
now  sets  up  is  an  interesting  dummy.     Burke  shows  what  he  is 
made  of  in  paragraph  119. 

67,  1 1 .  Inconclusive :    unfounded,  that  is,  not  drawn  from  the 
language  of  the  preamble  with  logical  accuracy,  as  a  sound  con- 
clusion should  be.     This  is  an  unusual  sense  of  the  word,  which 
usually  means  unconvincing. 

67,  1 6.  Moved  to  have  read:  in  order  to  prove  that  the  taxa- 
tion of  dependencies  without  their  voice  had  always  been  the 
right  of  Parliament. 

67,  1 8.  In  favor  of  his  opinions.  Pitt  replied  that  he  would 
cite  the  same  preambles  to  show  that  former  Parliaments  had  been 
ashamed  of  this  arbitrary  taxation  and  had  abandoned  it. 

67,  21.  As  favorable  as  possible  to  both:  but  distinctly  more 
favorable  to  Pitt,  and  now  to  Burke,  than  to  Grenville. 

67,  30.  De  jure  or  de  facto  bound:  bound  by  right,  or  by  fact 
without  regard  to  right.     The  question  of  the  right  to  tax  these 
dependencies  was  "put  totally  out  of  the  question." 

68,  12.  Illation:  the  name  for  the  mental  process  which  re- 
sults in  an  inference.     Study  the  derivation. 

We  Englishmen  stop.  The  remainder  of  the  paragraph  is 
devoted  to  proving  and  illustrating  the  first  ten  lines. 

68,  19.  Compromise  and  barter:  a  favorite  principle  with 
Burke,  and  one  which  he  did  much  to  teach  the  world. 

68,  30.  Apt  to  make  slaves  haughty:  as  a  tyrannical  govern- 
ment is  apt  to  beget  many  corrupt  aristocratic  dependents.     This 
artificial  importance  which  had  undermined  the  English  nation  in 
the  reigns  of  Charles  I  and  Charles  II,  was  exactly  what  Burke, 
as  a  Whig,  most  strongly  opposed. 

69,  12.  The  cords  of  man:  the  touch  of  nature  that  makes  the 
whole  world  kin.     The  expression  as  used  in  Hosea  xi.,  means 
heart-strings,  but  Burke  applies  it  to  common  prudence. 

69,  24.  Security,  not  the  rival :  an  appeal  to  the  magnanimity 


112  NOTES  AND  COMMENT 

of  his  hearers  which  it  seems  impossible  should  have  failed  to 
touch  them. 

69,  30.  Some  share  of  those  rights:  some   interest  in   the 
British  Constitution. 

70,  ii.  Separate  legislature.    Pitt,    the    younger,  in    1800, 
bought  out  the  Irish  Parliament  and  united  it  with  that  of  Eng- 
land. 

70,  14.  Conservation:    a  stronger  term  than  preservation. 

70,  27.  Proposition  of  the  noble  lord:    "the  project." 

71,  4.  Before  the  committee:  of  the  whole  House,  Feb.  20. 
71,  10.  Experimentum,  etc.:  "experiment  on  a  worthless  ob- 
ject."    The  rule  is, — Fiat  experimentum,  etc. 

71,  12.  Adverse  to:  compare  aversion  from,  line  22,  page  21. 
Adverse  is  generally  used  of  things,  not  of  persons. 

71,  23.  Proportional  payment:  taking  into  consideration  the 
actual  wealth  of  every  colony;  its  wealth  compared  with  that  of 
every  other  colony;  its  wealth  compared  with  that  of  Great 
Britain;  also,  the  absolute  and  relative  burdens  of  these  various 
governments. 

71,  28.  Back  door.  Compare  line  17.  The  ministry  would 
have  to  proportion  the  payments,  and  Parliament  would  not  dare 
re-open  so  complex  a  question. 

73,  8.  Composition:  compromise. 

73,  21.  English   revenue.   English  merchants  paid  duty  on 
the  importation  of  immense  quantities  of  tobacco. 

74,  3.  Confound  the  innocent  with  the  guilty:  as  the  penal 
bill   would  punish  all  New  England  colonies  for  the  sins  of  part; 
and  as  it  would  include  with  those  who  were  responsible  for  the 
disturbances,  many  who  had  been  absent  at  sea.  This  Restraining 
Bill  was  passed  over  the  protest  of  4,500  Quakers  on  Nantucket, 
who  were  "entirely  innocent  in  respect  to  the  present  disturbances 
in  America,  and  who  would  be  exposed  to  all  the  hardships  of 
famine."     (Quoted  by  Lamont  from  the  Parliamentary  History.) 

74,  19.  Treasury  extent:  "a  writ  issued  against  the  body, 
land  and  goods  of  a  crown  debtor."  (Cook.) 

24,  27.  The  Empire  of  Germany:  the  tottering  Holy  Roman 
Empire,  which  Napoleon  demolished  in  1806. 


NOTES  AND  COMMENT  113 

74,  28.  Quotas  and  contingents:  substantially  interchange- 
able terms.     Every  one  of  the  States,  with  Austria  at  their  head, 
was  called  upon  for  so  much  money  and  so  many  troops. 

75,  1 6.  Perplexed  and   intricate  mazes.     Compare   para- 
graphs 9  and  10. 

76,  1 8.  Posita    luditur    area.      "The  treasure-chest  itself  is 
staked  on  the  game."(Juvenal,  first  Satire.) 

76,  21.  Accumulated  a  debt:    proving   the  possession  of  a 
corresponding  credit. 

77,  2.  Has  a  tendency  to  increase  the  stock.      It  is  now- 
adays a  commonplace,  that  any  disturbance  of  the  public  mind 
affects  trade. 

77,  6.  Voluntary  flow  of  heaped  up  plenty.  Observe  the 
cheerfulness  with  which  the  burden  of  our  American  public  ex- 
penditures is  borne  at  the  present  time.  Observe  also  this  meta- 
phor, the  most  elaborate  and  effective  in  the  whole  speech. 

77,  19.  This  game.  There  is  hardly  a  more  suggestive  figure 
of  speech  in  the  oration  than  this.     Contrast,  in  imagination,  the 
state  of  America  as  Burke  desired  it, — the  game  of  parties  being 
played  in  free  atmosphere  with  a  voluntary  appeal  to  England  as 
holder  of  the  stakes — with  the  state  of  America  Lord  North's  plan 
would  produce,  in  which  "absolute  power  would  be  ill  obeyed 
because  odious,  and  contracts  would  be  ill  kept  because  con- 
strained." 

78,  1 6.  Taxable  objects:  especially  tobacco. 

78,  1 8.  Foreign  sale.  Burke's  idea  is  that  the  duty  paid  by 
English  merchants  on  imports  from  America,  is  clear  gain  to  the 
nation,  because  it  is  paid  out  of  the  profits  of  these  imports  when 
they  are  resold  to  other  countries.  The  word  you  is  applied  first 
to  the  treasury  of  England,  then  to  the  people  of  England. 

78,  29.  Her  interest.     Burke  uses  the  closing  paragraphs  of 
the  speech  to  enforce  this  central  principle  of  his  politics. 

79,  22.  Of  price:     precious,    a   Latinism.      It   suggests   the 
Scriptural — "of  great  price." 

79,  23.  True  Act  of  Navigation.  Emphasis  is  again  laid  on 
the  spirit  of  the  constitution.  Compare  page  76,  line  10,  "the 
first  of  all  revenues." 


114  NOTES  AND   COMMENT 

79,  29.  Registers,  bonds,  affidavits:  as  connected  with 
custom-house  operations. 

79,  30.  Sufferances:  permits  for  the  shipment  of  dutiable 
goods. 

79,  3i.Cockets:  receipts  for  payment  of  duties. — Clearances: 
sailing  papers  granted  to  merchantmen. 

80,  2.  The  great  contexture    of  the  mysterious  whole. 
(Read  Morley's  Life  of  Burke,  pages  162  and  163.) 

80,  15.  Mutiny  Bill:  a  strange  name  for  the  act  annually 
passed  to  provide  for  certain  expenses  of  the  British  army.  Green 
gives  a  luminous  account  of  its  original  passage,  as  a  corollary  of 
the  Bill  of  Rights  in  1639.  (Short  History,  page  666.) 

80,  2  2.  Nothing  hut  rotten  timber:  an  expression  interesting 
when  contrasted  with  our  modern  phrase,  "the  men  behind  the 
guns." 

80,  25.  Mechanical  politicians:  relying  on  "passive  tools," 
etc.,  paragraph  137. 

81,  5.  Auspicate:  favorably  introduce.     The  word  is  derived 
from  auspicium,    the  consultation  of   the  birds  by  the  Roman 
augurs.     It  is  not  quite  in  harmony   with  the  phrase  from  the 
Christian  liturgy  which  follows. 

81,  15.  As  we  have  got,  etc.  For  the  method,  see  Burke's 
doctrine  of  "salutary  neglect."  This  sentence  and  the  ones 
which  immediately  precede  and  follow  it,  are  perhaps  the  strong- 
est in  the  speech. 

81,  19.  Quod  felix  faustumque  sit!  "And  may  the  outcome 
be  happy  and  successful!"  An  old  Roman  invocation. 

The  first  stone.  Following  the  six  chief  resolutions,  the  cor- 
ollary three  were  moved,  divided  into  seven.  Not  one  was  passed. 

81,  27.  Put  and  carried:  in  all  probability,  an  editorial  blun- 
der. What  was  carried,  was  the  intention  of  the  previous  question. 

In  English  parliamentary  practice,  the  previous  question  is 
moved  as  a  tactful  way  of  rejecting  a  delicate  measure.  It  is 
moved  by  a  member  who  intends  to  vote  against  his  own  motion. 
The  resolutions  which,  in  this  case,  had  the  previous  question  put 
on  them  were  such  as  no  rational  being  could  directly  oppose.  The 
resolutions  which  afforded  ground  for  objection,  however 
were  squarely  negatived. 


QUESTIONS  AND  TOPICS  FOR  STUDY 


1.  Trace  the  beginnings  of  the  policy  of  taxation,  and  show 
how  and  why  America  was  irritated  by  the  operations  of  the  Brit- 
ish government  in  this  respect. 

2.  Argue  for  the  justice  of  the  British  policy. 

3.  Special  topics  under  1  and  2: 

a.  The  Attitude  of  King   George  III  on  the  subject  of 
Colonial  taxation; 

b.  Of  Lord  Grenville; 

c.  Of  the  first  William  Pitt; 

d.  Of  Lord  North; 

e.  Of  the  Continental  Congress. 

4.  What  acts  did  England  employ  to  enforce  submission  upon 
the  colonists? 

b.     What  was  the  success  of  this  policy? 

5.  What  part  had  Burke  taken  in  the  American  controversy 
previous  to  March  22,  1775  ? 

6.  What  crises  can  you  recall  between  the  accession  of  King 
George  in  1760,  and  the  letter  of  Burke  to  the  Sheriffs  of  Bristol 
in  1777? 

7.  What  were  the  purposes  and  the  effect  of  Burke's  Speech 
on  Conciliation? 

8.  Discuss  the  following  essential  details  of  the  Speech: 

a.  The  importance  of  America  as  an  object  of  legislative 
attention; 

b.  Burke's  analysis  of  Colonial  character; 

c.  His  insistence  upon  the  privilege  of  self-taxation  as  the 
"mark  and  seal  of  British  freedom"; 

d.  His  reply  to  those  who  would  solve  the  American  prob- 
lem by  the  use  of  force; 

115 


116       QUESTIONS  AND   TOPICS  FOR  STUDY 

e.  The  distinction  between  "trade"  and  "revenue"   laws, 
and  the  argument  for  the  repeal  of  the  latter; 

f.  The  two  questions  on  which  "you  must  this  day  decide"; 

g.  The  three  ways  of  proceeding  relative  to  the  stubborn 
"spirit  of  liberty"; 

h.    The  first  way — argued  in  great  detail; 

i.     The  second  way — argued  with  subtlety; 

j.  The  third,  or  "only  remaining  way",  is  supported  by 
the  positive  proof  of  an  historical  analogy; 

k.  Burke 's  six  main  resolutions  which  he  calls  the  six  pillars 
of  the  Temple  of  British  Concord; 

1.     His  seven  corollary  resolutions; 

m.  His  opinion  of  Lord  North's  plan  as  a  "ransom  by 
auction"; 

n.     His  objections  to  this  plan  or  "project"; 

o.  His  doctrines  of  government  as  suggested  by  such  phrases 
as:  "salutary  neglect,"  "the  power  of  refusal",  "compromise 
and  barter",  "interest  in  the  British  constitution";  "that 
sense  of  dignity  and  that  security  to  property  which  ever  at- 
tends freedom,  has  a  tendency  to  increase  the  stock  of  the  free 
community." 

9.  Study  each  of  the  following  passages  until  its  meaning 
becomes  clear    in    its   relation  to  the  general  drift  of   Burke's 
argument.     Note  especially  the  parts  in  italics: 

a.  "They  complain  that  they  are  taxed  in  a  Parliament  in 
which  they  are  not  represented.     If  you  mean  to  satisfy  them  at 
all,  you  must  satisfy  them  with  regard  to  this  complaint." 

b.  "Let  us  get  an  American  revenue  as  we  have  got  an 
American  empire.     English  privileges  have  made  it  all  that  it 
is;   English  privileges  alone  will  make  it  all  it  can  be". 

10.  Look  through  the  speech 

a.  For    brilliant  examples  of  metaphor; 

b.  For  evidence  of  Burke's  "knowledge  of  human  nature"; 

c.  For  evidences  of  Burke's  familiarity  with  social  usages 
in  England  in  1775? 

d.  For  evidence  of  his  advanced  views  on  what  we  call  the 
"science  of  economics"? 


QUESTIONS  AND   TOPICS  FOR  STUDY        117 

11.     What  principles  expressed  in  this  speech  might  apply  in 
a  discussion  of  the  problems  of  modern  government: 

a.  Of  Egypt  by  England?     Of  South  Africa? 

b.  Of  the  Philippines  by  the  United  States? 

c.  Of  our  territories  by  the  federal  power? 

d.  Of  Canada?     Of  Ireland? 


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